


Per Angusta Ad Augusta

by A_storytelling_muse



Series: World Traveler [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adaars need love too damnit, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comedy, Drama, F/M, Fantasy, Fluff, I have no idea what I'm doing, Modern Girl in Thedas, Romance, Slow Build, aww it's fluff, but wait there's more, editing along the way, freeformish, god this is going to be bad, qunari inquisitor, ratings might change over time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-05-30 10:59:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6421117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_storytelling_muse/pseuds/A_storytelling_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aquila learns that sometimes you really should just ignore your curiosity.<br/>Starts out to be a normal day, ends up where of all places? Thedas.<br/>A land she is <em> highly </em> familiar with after pouring hours and hours into the series.<br/>Navigating this world is going to be tough, especially with all the knowledge she has.<br/>And some that she shouldn't.</p><p>Shit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Don't step into the light

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Just wanted to say thanks for at least acknowledging this shit tier of fanfiction. I haven't wrote anything in years (at least 8), so this is a bit of a first to me. I hope to improve as I go along so that way it can get less cringy as it goes on lol. Well without further ado, let's get this show on the road.

“Come on already we’re going to be late.” Beth bugged at Aquila. The two were off to meet some friends to work on a group project for their Astronomy class. “Yes, yes. I heard you the first time.” Aquila chided while smirking. While most found their friendship to be quirky, or something that wouldn’t work, the two were best friends and Aquila wouldn’t have it any other way. Where Beth was loud and outspoken, she was quiet and a bit reserved. Aquila knew when to be her voice of reason and Beth was there to help her when she struggled to speak up. Friendships that develop over time are the ones that are most treasured, well at least that’s what Aquila thought. It eventually got to the point where she was able to find her voice among the people she knew, though when it came to strangers she was still timid.  


“I’m assuming you did at least some of your part Beth?” She asked while looking straight up ahead to the library. Their destination coming closer as they walked. She knew Beth was a procrastinator and she sometimes needed to be reminded often to do something.  


“Yeah, yeah.” Beth grumbled as she put her hands behind her head. “I don’t see why we have to do most of it today. It’s not due for another two weeks.”  
“Which is precisely why we have to do it today. I don’t want to be stuck with the majority of the work like the other times I’ve done projects with you, Matt and Melissa.” Aquila pointed out. “I always have to wing it afterward to make up for you guys. I swear it’s like you guys want to overwork me.” She sighed dramatically. Beth glanced towards her and grinned, “Hey, that’s why we have you aye? Besides you’re being dramatic. We all help out. Eventually” Aquila laughed as she looked at her friend. “Eventually being the keyword. I won’t always be around to help you know. It’s by sheer luck we were able to pick out the class together.”  


College so far had been okay, besides working at the campus library she has been fairing by well. This semester was her last, so she took the liberty of picking out some classes that interested her and the final art class required for her major. Beth had one more semester to go and she wasn’t quite sure if the others were near completion. Not that it mattered to her, but she did want to see her friends succeed in life.  


“You always put others before you Aquila. You can’t be a doormat all the time.” She’s lost count of how many times that has been said to her or variations of it. She knew they meant well, it’s just that it didn’t bother her that much. To see others do well, brought a small happiness to her as odd as it sounded. To be fair she preferred that they be the center of attention instead of her, since she was what most people called a “wallflower”. That suited her just fine and took no offense to it whatsoever since it was pretty much true. Aquila liked to keep to herself most of the time, though she enjoyed the company of her friends when the opportunity presented itself. It made it less awkward for her when she had to go out, since she had a habit of observing things, people, and places. Most called it spacing out (since that’s what it looked like), but mostly she liked to be aware of things that were going on as if she was watching a movie.  


As they started to climb up the stairs a cold breeze flew by, making Beth clutch at her scarf to keep it from hitting her face. “Jesus Christ it’s freaking freezing. Did we really REALLY have to do this today?” Beth whined at her while blowing into her hands to keep them warm. It was forecasted that today was going to be slightly windy, but even Aquila felt this was a bit too much and she tolerated the cold fairly well. It’s why she decided to wear her favorite jacket today, it being a Tali hoody she got as a gift from Beth. The soft fabric kept her warm while the oversized hood helped to keep her purple hair from flying around like whips.  


“It’s either today or tomorrow when the temp drops even more Beth.” Aquila commented. Secretly, she didn’t want to be here as well, but damn it she won’t slack on her last semester even if she has to drag Beth along to do the work. “After this, we can all go home. Besides I still have stuff to do at home.” She said as she opened the door for her and Beth to walk through.  
“By ‘stuff to do’ I’m going to assume Dragon Age huh Aqua?” Beth hinted at. It was no secret that Aquila had a major obsession with the series. Or what as most described a “geek”. Dragon Age wasn’t the only one either. Her love of games is what coaxed her to join the industry and so far she’s gotten a few offers here and there to work on some indie projects.  


“Is it that obvious?” Aquila laughed. “Yeah it is.” Beth said as they turned around the corner to head to the study room that they had reserved. “This will be your what? Third playthrough already?” Beth asked. “Fifth actually. I decided to make a new one, but I chose a different race. Wanted to spice it up ya know?” Aquila explained as they reached the study room.  


“Yeah, yeah. I know” Beth waved her wrist. “Let’s just get this over with yeah? Hey guys!” Beth boomed to the others as we entered. “Beth! Aqua! Hi guys! Thought you two weren’t going to make it.” Their one friend called Melissa piped. “We would have been here on time had Aqua not forgotten to get the notes we needed.” Beth told her as she sat down on to the chair across from her. “I needed to make sure they were the right ones Beth. Besides, did you even bring yours?” Aqua asks as she sits down and starts to rummage through her backpack to find her notes on the constellations they were going to present. Astronomy had always fascinated her, so she was ecstatic when she learned this was an available class. Something about space and beyond just sang to her.  


“Er… no?” Beth mumbled looking towards their other friend Matt as he laughed. “Dang it Beth. How are we supposed to get stuff done if you’re slacking?” Matt jested towards Beth who huffed and crossed her arms. “Whatever Matty. I’ll just take pictures of the notes from my phone and combine it with what I have already.”  


“That’s even if you remember to do it.” Matt said as he opened the astrology book they all have and his laptop. He proceeded to open up the PowerPoint software that had some of the project done and sighed. “Man, hate having to do these. It feels unnecessary.”  


“I disagree. I prefer this instead of having to type a 5 page essay on the importance of the damn Big Dipper in the sky.” Responded Melissa as she was overlooking her notes from class.  
Aquila sighed, “Let us start so that way we can get most of it out of the way. It’s going to be the weekend and I’m sure none of you guys want to do such hard work.” She joked as the others laughed.  
“Okay,” Matt said as his laughing died down, “Let’s get this over with.”  


They stayed in the study room for a full two hours, going over and discussing what they have found so far. Despite it being a productive day, they all agreed to finish it up next week before the due date. “Whelp, that’s it for me today. Let’s go ahead and finish up later before our brains decide to shut down” Matt said as he yawned. “Same for me as well. Plus, I have other homework to do.” Melissa added as she rubbed her eyes. Aquila looked at her phone to check the time. It was 5:30 p.m., and she knew that asking them to stay a bit longer would automatically be shut down. “Alright guys, we made some pretty good progress today. Matt, can you send me the PowerPoint through email just so we can have a backup?” She asked as she started to put her notes away.  
“Mmm, sure. I’ll send it to you later today.” He replied back.  


After tidy up the slight mess they had, all four of them exited the room chatting about random tidbits of their days and making plans on when to hang out. They start to descend the stairs of the library and walk along the path that is lined up with the untouched trees from the woods that surround this place. Matt was showing them all a video from his phone when suddenly there was a bright green flash to the left of them, all four of them covering their eyes.  


“What the fuck was that?!” Matt exclaimed with nervousness in his voice. “I don’t know man! It came from over there somewhere.” Beth pointed out towards the bright glimmers deep in the woods.  
“Should we go check it out?” Melissa asked. “I don’t know Mel. You just don’t suddenly go towards a bright light like a moth. It could be dangerous." Matt said as he put his phone away. Despite Aquila knowing there could be some danger, she was very curious on the phenomenon that was a couple of meters away. Despite being quite introverted, her curiosity sometimes got the better hold of her. This, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you ask) was one of those situations.  


“Aqua?” Beth tilted her head towards me from my side. She could already tell that Aquila was curious, but she always wanted to confer to her before she did something. Especially in odd situations, which is exactly what this was. “This does has my interest,” Aquila commented to the group, “but I do not want to force you guys to come with me. I simply want to get a look at it.” She looked towards the group to see their reactions. The three of them looked at each other with apprehensive looks.  


“If you’re going to go, then I’ll go with you too.” Beth said standing next to Aquila. “After all, what’s life without a little fun aye? And if any of us dies and the other lives we can just haunt each other.” She looked towards Aquila and winked with a devilish grin. “Okay fine. We’ll go as well. Let’s just not die okay?” Matt grumbled as him and Melissa walked up to the duo.  


Aquila nodded once, “Alrighty then. Let’s move. Remember to stick together or at least stay within sight of each other.” The four of them moved together towards the light all the while Aquila’s curiosity getting stronger and a bit harder to contain so of course she was in the front. The faint glimmers started to get brighter the closer they got. It was about 15 minutes later when they finally reached their destination and all stood in awe with their mouths slightly agape. There was what looked like a bright, neon green piece of silk that was floating with light emitting from the center of it. Aquila was awed by what she saw, but then a thought came to her and soon she was uneasy on what this might be.  


“Hey, Aqua?” Aquila looked towards Beth, who also looked a little unsure. “This… this looks like one of those things in that game you play… Doesn’t it?”  
Aquila looked back towards light anomaly with some doubt in the back of her head. Maybe this wasn’t really a good idea after all. Damn her, and her immense curiousness. “Yeah. Yeah it does, but this shouldn’t exist. Right?”  


Matt piped up from behind her, “Maybe it’s just a hologram?” Beth rolled her eyes. “Yes Matt. Sure. Someone out here just decided to put up a hologram of a, of a-” “Rift” Aquila added never taking her eyes off of it. “Yeah, of a rift because fuck it right?”  
“Hey, man I’m only thinking of ideas on why this is here. Totally not freaking out.”  
Even Aquila rolled her eyes. For someone who was 6’2’’ he sure was more timid that what people normally expected. Though he could be a force to be reckoned with when it came to MMA. Dude’s a beast, she thought to herself. It’s because of him she was able to learn some new fighting techniques as well, though they weren’t on par with Matt’s. Aquila steadily walked her way towards the “rift”, standing about 2 feet away from it. 

She wanted to touch it, but her senses told her otherwise not to. “Aqua?” Beth called from behind her. “I think we should go before shit goes down. I’ve seen too many movies where stuff just hits the shitter.” Aquila laughed at her friend’s way of words. It started to rub off on her as well. They were best friends after all.  


“Yes, yes, Beth. I’m highly aware of the imminent danger here.” She talked as she turned around. “Nonetheless this was interesting to see so let’s go on and-” suddenly there was a bright flash behind Aquila and her friends all covered their eyes.  


“What?!” Aquila exclaimed feeling a force so powerful pulling her towards the rift. “Shit, shit, shit, SHIT.” She frantically thought trying to pull away from it. “Beth!” she screamed. Beth looked at her in a panicked state trying to figure out what to do. “Aquila!” Beth cried while trying to reach her, but was held back by Matt and Melissa. “Beth no!” Matt yelled. “Let me go! Please! Fuck! Aquila! AQUILA!”  


“Beth you can’t! It’ll take you too!” Melissa cried, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I don't care!" Beth yelled. "Aqua! Aquila!!"  


Hearing her friend scream was the last thing she heard as she got sucked into the rift as she held out her hand in a last attempt to get free.  


There was a flash and then,  
Nothing.


	2. Where not in Kansas anymore Toto

Noises. That’s all that Aquila could hear. Muffled sounds of shoes on the ground and people murmuring around her. Still groggy from whatever had happened she laid there, her energy almost gone as if she ran a marathon.

Am… am I dead? She thought lying there. There was then a sudden feeling of a sharp metal object as it prodded her side. _Ow. Nope. Apparently not._ She slowly opened her eyes, struggling against the natural bright rays of the sun, but closing them back.

“She’s alive! And breathing!” she heard a voice bellowed from above her. Aquila struggled to steady her breathing, but she felt it falter. _It feels like I just got into a MMA match with someone twice my size. Everything is so sore._ Soon there were more voices:

“Look at her hair!” 

“What sort of color is that?”

“Is that natural?”

Aquila smiled internally to herself. It was always her hair that people first noticed about her. Not that she blamed them. It wasn’t like people were born with colored hair everyday right? Shy as she is, her creativeness spoke for her.

“Is it a demon?” “Don’t look like it.”

“Looks like she came out of the rift.”  


_The rift? What?_ Aquila was confused as to what was going on since she was still disoriented from what had just happened. She felt someone’s presence as a shadow fell over her. It was then that she felt a warm hand across her forehead. “She seems to have a bit of a fever.” Commented a familiar voice. Aquila was sure she’s heard that voice before, but she was too dazed and weak to push it further.  


“Are you able to sit up?” the voice asked. Aquila mumbled incoherently, struggling to move to a seated position. It proved harder to do and in doing so received shocks of pain as her body moved causing her to cry out and hunch over her stomach. A quick hand over her stomach let her know that whatever cut she had started to bleed again. She could feel the warm wetness grow, causing her to panic. Her jacket being mostly blacked help her to not think about how much blood she has lost so far. She breathed heavily trying to calm herself down and to push back the nauseous feeling that was coming over her. As Aquila started to sit more comfortably (well, with what comfort she could get), she felt a hand gently place itself on her back and another on her leg to help her get some stability. Feeling the hands caused her to open her eyes slightly, and what she saw made all her muscles tense.  


Pale, grey hands rested on her legs. There seemed to be some blood stains underneath it, which she would guess was probably hers considering all the pain she’s in. Aquila couldn't really see, but she guessed that where the hand was placed was probably trying to stop the bleeding. The wound felt sore and tender, and his huge hands hid most of the tear on the jeans. Slowly, she brought her gaze upwards and what she saw made gasp quietly.  


There he was, the Adaar Inquisitor/Herald she had just made. Silver hair trailing down to his shoulders, flowing smoothly from the space between the horns that protruded from his head. The horns themselves looked strong and sturdy, curving back from his forehead like that of a dragon. They weren’t overly large, but it added to the strong demeanor that he had. The Herald’s face had strong, chiseled features, if he looked human he could have been mistaken as a Roman god of some sort, well to her at least. His eyes were a soft grey ringed with a green similar to the Fade, as Aquila made most of her characters with that distinct trademark. Even as he was crouched down, she could tell that he was tall and built, but yet treated her with a gentleness that was surprising.  


She looked at him in awe, and in return he gave her a warm smile that almost caught her off guard making her slightly blush. A sound from a couple of feet away snapped her out of her revere and she crawled backwards quickly, even though she felt hot pain go through her all over again. It was more of a fear tactic since she was never good with dealing with things by herself. Or people, or anything really. Being shy was a downfall of hers that she had yet to improve on. She ended up backing straight into a giant rock, which made her wince as her back pained her slightly. Once again she tried to calm herself from the pain by looking down and closing her eyes. The Herald looked at her with a slight frown, worry and concern in his eyes, until he looked towards where the noise was coming from.  


“Our scouts have told us that they found an injured person, Herald.” Said a voice in a familiar accent. “That’s right Cass, though I’m surprised she’s still alive considering the injuries she has.” Replied the man in front of her.  


_Cass? As in Cassandra Pentaghast? What? No, that can’t be right. It can’t be… right? I must be delusional._ Aquila babbled to herself inside her head. This all had to be a dream right? There was no way that she could be in Thedas, though the nagging thoughts in her head about the rift she encountered with her friends told her otherwise. As she was thinking about the event that had led her here, she failed to realize two more people come up, both people looking at her with a light curiousness, though one had more than the other.  


“I gotta say Smiles, you sure there aren’t any more of you guys waiting to pop out of the rifts?” asked another familiar voice. _Varric. That had to be Varric._ Aquila thought to herself as she continued to look down. She feared that if she looked up to what she knew would be in front of her, she would either a) go into a panic realizing she’s probably stuck here, or b) fan girl and realize she’s stuck here. Either one would probably get her odd looks from the current party.  


The Herald laughed, “I’m pretty sure I don’t know if there are other people popping out of rifts Varric. As far as I know, I thought I was the only one who this had happened too. That doesn’t seem to be the case apparently.”  


“Either way, we should bring her in for questioning or tie her up. She could possibly be a demon.” Interjected Cassandra between the two. “I don’t think there’s much danger she can do Seeker. I mean, have you seen the amount of blood that she’s lost. I think she needs a healer, not a jailor.” Said Varric as he looked at Aquila, a slight concern glinting in his eyes. With that, she looked up and this time she was able to verbally hold her awe from the two figures she saw, though her eyes widen with amazement. There they were, the Seeker and the Storyteller in the flesh. Two out of the three people the Inquisitor always started out with. That means if they’re here-  


“Varric has a point Cass, besides I don’t see any weapons on her. Hidden or not. We should take her back to camp.”  


_I swear to god, if **he's** here I’m going to internally scream. From what emotion it is I don’t know, but man am I gonna scream incoherently._  


Cassandra sighed, “If you say so Herald, but she’s your responsibility.” He chuckled at Cassandra’s annoyance, “Yes, yes. I know. Now,” he said as he looked towards Aquila, “I’m sure it’s been a tiring event for you, but I would like to know your name. If you’re still not in shock and all.” He ended with a smile.  


_My name? Oh yeah! Shit should I just make something up? Or just give them my actual one? It’s not like they exactly know who I am._  


Aquila contemplated this for a few seconds. If there was anything she was good at, it had to be her quick thinking skills, or more of 100 thoughts moving in her head a minute, but somehow able to keep track of them. She looked up at him, both worry and shyness showing in her eyes. The Herald seemed to of catch her sense of thoughts so he cleared his throat.  


“If it makes you feel better, or easier I’ll tell you my name first. My name is Kaaras and I am with the Inquisition.” He gestured to the other two from him, “And over there is Cassandra and Varric, my companions.”  


Aquila nodded her head as if she was trying to become familiar with their names, knowing that to be far from the truth. It was then that she decided to give them her real name, it’s not like she was from here anyways. Well, she tried to at least, breathing was getting a little bit more difficult. At this point she guessed to herself that she had bruised her lungs at some point. She placed a hand above her chest, trying to settle her breathing so she could at least say her name. Kaaras seemed to of noticed her struggle and rummaged through his satchel to bring out a vial filled with a red liquid.  


“Is that wise Herald? What if she attacks after she’s healed?” Cassandra asked with concern in her voice. “I’m not worried about that Cass, besides she’ll need more that a health potion to help with fully recovering from the injuries. This is just to help her out a bit.”  


He took out the cork and gently held it out to Aquila. She looked at him then at the vial, eventually reaching out with shaking hands. _Wow, I must have lost a lot of blood then if I can’t even grab the damn thing._  


Kaaras then put his hand on hers, “Here, I’ll help. Tilt your head back. Wouldn’t want the vial to break on you and cut you even more.” Aquila slightly reddened at the motion, but quickly dismissed it and did what she was told. He placed the vial against her lips and she took in a large gulp, afterwards coughing from the horrible taste. Kaaras quickly moved the half-filled vial from her, to give her time to breathe. Aquila started to feel a tingling sensation pass through her body, going straight from her chest to her arms and legs. She could feel her body repairing some parts, and her lungs started to hurt less, even if she was coughing less.  


“Oh man, that’s the worst thing I’ve ever tasted.” Aquila grumbled as she tried to still her coughing. She heard Varric laugh, “That’s what I’ve been telling the potion maker, but the man says as long as it does its job who cares how it taste. Though it would be an improvement if it didn’t taste like shit.” Aquila giggled quietly making Kaaras smile with a kind gleam in his eyes. “Feeling better?” he asked.  


“Very much so. Still sore and tired, but at least I’m not bleeding out to death. I think?” she replied back. He chuckled at her answer, “So mind telling us what your name is?” Aquila looked at him then at the other two companions. Varric was standing there with a friendly smile, why Cassandra glared at her with her arms crossed against her chest. She wasn’t surprised by how the Seeker was acting against her. She herself would be suspicious too if a random stranger fell out of a rift where demons normally come from.  


“Aquila. My name is Aquila.” She said tiredly. Whatever happened to her took out most of her energy, so now she was fighting to stay awake. It was then that she yawned, covering her mouth out of habit more than anything.  


“I think it’s time to head back to camp now. You seem to need some rest.” Kaaras commented on the sleepy state of Aquila. “Do you think you can stand?”  


“I… I can try. I don’t know if my legs will work with me. I don’t know how long I’ve been unconscious for.” She guessed with uncertainty. _How long have I been out? Probably not long, hopefully. Any longer and I’d probably be dead._  


“Only one way to find out.” Kaaras chirped. He stood up then reached out a hand to Aquila. She looked up at him, eyes slightly widening. He was as tall as she expected, and the sun glistening in his hair made him look ethereal. _Holy hell I made a good ass looking Qunari. ___She mentally fist pumped to herself, then felt slightly embarrassed at the notion. After her quick self-scolding, she reached for his hand which let him slowly pull her up. She was able to stand for all but a few seconds before her legs started to shake and give way, only be saved by Kaaras holding onto her waist before she could fall.  


“Th-thank you Kaaras. It seems that my legs don’t agree with me on moving.” She chuckled awkwardly.  


Kaaras grinned at her then laughed, “You seem to be right on that, but don’t worry though I have a solution.” She looked up at him curiously, watching his grin turn mischievous. In one quick movement, he placed his other arm underneath her legs and lifted her up cradling her so that way she would be in a more comfortable position. Aquila’s eyes widened at what had just happened and she could feel her face getting warm from the position she was in. She could hear Varric trying to stifle a laugh and Cassandra doing her signature groan.  


“K-Kaaras? What-?”  


He laughed at her embarrassment, “Don’t worry about it. Camp isn’t too far from here anyways.”  


“I didn’t think you would bridal carry her so soon Smiles. I’m pretty sure it involves more romance then finding someone injured in the Hinterlands.” Varric chuckled.  


Varric’s teasing made Aquila blush even more causing both men to laugh. “Come on guys let’s move out.” “Shouldn’t we wait for Solas?” Cassandra asked as Kaaras started to move past her. Hearing Solas’ name made Aquila slightly tense and if Kaaras felt it he didn’t say otherwise. “Oh yeah we should. I wonder where he went.” He mused as he looked around.  


“No need to wait for me, Herald.” Answered a calm voice from behind the group. It was then that Kaaras turned around while still carrying Aquila. “Ah! Solas! I was wondering where you were. I was about to go looking for you.” He said cheerfully. “You were going to look for me while carrying the girl?" Solas asked with a brow raised and a slight hint of amusement in this voice. “Er, maybe? Besides it’s not like I’m by myself,” he laughed as the others just sighed. Aquila was focusing on her knees, trying to keep calm and struggling as she did.  


“Anyways where did you go? I didn’t see you behind us while we were here with her.” Kaaras added as he slightly nodded his head to the girl in his arms.  


“I was looking around the area to see if any demons also came out of the rift, but alas there was none. I do find it strange how the rift just disappeared without you using the mark. It had me most curious. Also, I seemed to have found this. I do believe it belongs to her.” Solas presumed as he held up a crescent moon patterned black canvas backpack by the straps.  


Hearing this, Aquila looked up towards Solas, who stood a couple of feet away holding her backpack that she had completely forgotten about.  


“Ah, yes. Yes! That’s mine. I... kinda forgot I had it with me.” She spoke quietly. Solas hummed in acknowledgement. He then walked up to where Kaaras was, but then froze when he saw a quick flash of cautious fear in her eyes. Aquila didn’t realize that she was clutching onto Kaaras armor as Solas approached, feeling both overwhelmed and amazed at the person standing in front of her.  


“He won’t hurt you, you know.” Kaaras smiled at Aquila. “Yeah. Chuckles might look cold, but he wouldn’t hurt you. Well, without reason anyways.” Varric added. Aquila nodded at the both of them nervously, looking towards Solas trying not to cast her gaze away. “Th-thank you very much… Solas. It means a lot to me.” she murmured as she took her backpack and held it to her chest as if it was a stuffed animal.  


A side of his mouth quirked upwards, unintentionally making Aquila feel slightly giddy and calm. “It was no trouble to me, though I do agree with the rest of the group that we make way towards camp so I can use some healing spells. You are still weak, yes?” he asked. She nodded her head once again and yawned into her backpack keeping her head there as if she was to fall asleep.  


Kaaras shifted his arms slightly so that way she was in a more comfortable position against his chest as Aquila closed her eyes. “Well, that’s that. Alright guys let’s get to camp before the sun sets. We still need to get back to Haven to plan out the watch towers for Bron and Master Dennet.”  


Aquila was going to ask a question about Haven, but her mind soon gave out and she entered into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this chapter was longer than I expected lol. I was planning on having this out a few days ago, but it's my last semester in college so I have to kick my butt into gear on that. Hopefully soon I'll be able to have more free time once that's done, so until then the updates will be kinda random. Thank you all so much for reading though! I'm surprised it's gotten this many hits and any kudos at all. ^-^


	3. Time to Wake Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I was planning on posting this chapter earlier, but it ended up being so long that I had to cut it in half. The other half might be posted up tomorrow, or maybe in a few days after a bit more editing. Honestly, I'm having more fun with this than I think I should.

The group made their way towards the Dwarfson’s Pass Camp since that was the closest one. They talked amongst themselves about the events that had happened and how to tell the others when they got back. Kaaras initially wanted to keep their voices down to let Aquila rest, but after a while, he could tell she was deep in sleep and that noise was the least of their worries.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Though he did not want to seem suspicious or curious, he couldn’t help but look down on the sleeping girl he carried in his arms. Never had he met someone who had intrigued him as much as she did. Her abnormal hair color was one thing, it was beautiful. Seeing the cascading shades of purple made him want to touch her hair, though at the moment he couldn’t. Even so, it was the gentleness and curiosity that her face and demeanor held that tugged at him. He realized he should probably pay attention to the road in front of them since he wouldn’t want to trip **again** like the first time he stared at her too long. Varric had made a comment when that had happened. Something about falling in love not being a literal thing, but Kaaras laughed and said that’s not what he had planned to happen, though the slight heat from his pointed ears said otherwise. Cassandra groaned and Solas gave a small laugh.

After an hour or so they reached the camp. The sun was a little less than halfway in the sky, they could tell they had a few hours till dusk came. Kaaras made his way to the tent that he and Cassandra shared, followed by Solas so that he could use his healing magic on the sleeping girl. Gently, Kaaras kneeled down next to his sleeping furs and placed Aquila down. She mumbled a bit as she was set down but otherwise fell back to sleep. He smiled at the notion and absentmindedly put some of her hair back behind her ears. 

“You know, if you wanted to admire her I would suggest doing it while she’s conscious. Instead of her not even being aware of what you’re doing.” Advised Solas from behind him. 

“What?! That’s not, I mean- I was just looking. Wait, no. I’m just curious about her that’s all. You can’t say you’re not too either Solas.” Kaaras blurted as he tried to hide his embarrassment. 

Solas chuckled a bit at Kaaras attempt to change the subject. “True as it may be, I suggest we wait till she’s actually awake. I’m pretty sure she has questions as do we.” Kaaras nodded in agreement looking at Aquila one last time before he stood up. 

“Well, I leave her in your care for now Solas. I’ll be with Cassandra and Varric outside. Maker knows they can’t be by themselves before they bicker with each other.” 

Solas’ mouth quirked up as he walked to where Aquila was. “Or before Cassandra threatens to kill Varric. Or arrest him. Probably both knowing her.” He added. 

It was then Kaaras who laughed. “That may be true Solas. See you in a bit.” With that he waved his hand as he turned around to exit the tent. Solas watched Kaaras leave then turned his attention to the sleeping girl behind him. He kneeled down next to her as he slowly waved his hand over her, emitting a healing energy as his hands moved back and forth across her body. He noticed that the potion had done a good portion of the work on the surface, the holes in her jeans showing the beginnings of pale pink scars. It was the internal injuries that needed his attention. So with that, the green energy cocooned Aquila’s body, healing the last bit of injuries so she can have a more painless sleep. Surprisingly he had used more energy than he had expected as if she was absorbing it from him, but he brushed it off as mere fatigued from the battle before they found her. 

He placed his hands on his knees, closing his eyes as he tried to settle his breathing after healing Aquila extensively. As Solas’ breath settled he opened his eyes and looked towards her face. She had a peaceful look about her and her oddly colored hair added to her aura as she slept. He had many questions for her, yes, but patience was something that he had mastered over time. So, he would wait until she had awakened and was aware. 

He thought back to how the group had first found her. Kaaras had tended to her, trying to make her feel more comfortable with the group. For a Qunari, he was quite calming and was very friendly towards other people. Even when Cassandra had acted brashly against him at first, though he couldn’t really blame her, he had accepted it then, not even holding it against her. He could guess that he was smarter then he led on, though the cheerful demeanor Kaaras had said otherwise. 

Solas smiled to himself and shook his head. An amusing person he was, it would be interesting to watch what happened as time went on. It was then that he heard a shifting noise, bringing Solas out of his thinking. Aquila had shifted to her side, snuggling into the furs, releasing a contented sigh. He couldn’t help but smile at the notion. He reminded her of a child, though she was far from one. It was mostly her young face that showed this, but he guessed that she was around the age of a youth barely entering adulthood. He was probably wrong, but it was a question for another time. With that last thought, he stood up and proceeded to exit the tent. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Aquila woke up in a haze, not being completely aware of her surroundings. Sleepily, she sat up rubbing her eyes with her wrists. It was then that she realized that she wasn’t by the huge boulder anymore. She looked around, noting that she was inside a tent and on what looked like furs underneath her. A sleeping bag-like thing perhaps? That had to be it, she thought to herself. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes to collect her thoughts. If what she remembered correctly was right, Kaaras was carrying her from where they had found her while she slept. They had a made a mention of a camp, so she assumed that’s where she was. 

_Okay, so far I know is that 1) I fell out of a rift, don’t even know how that happened, 2) I must have tumbled down something because man that was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. 3) Kaaras carried me like a baby to the camp. I don’t know whether to feel embarrassed or happy. Maybe both._

She took another breath, slowing coming to realize that at the current moment, she was stuck here and she wasn’t sure on what exactly she should feel about it. Of course, she loved the place, having spent countless hours exploring the areas, even the ones she didn’t like. _Damn Hissing Wastes_ , she thought out of irritation, but this was different. This was more… real. Everything felt so real and if this was just a dream it was a damned good one. 

Aquila was deep in thought, not hearing the tent flap move as a tall figure stood by the entrance. “I see you’ve finally awakened.” Called the deep voice. 

“Huh? What?” blurted Aquila as she looked up to where it came from. Kaaras was standing by the front of the tent, arms folded across his chest and a smile gracing his face. Aquila couldn’t help, but to stare at him. It still caught her off guard on how her character was here in the flesh, in front of her. 

She wondered what his personality would be like. She generally had all her Inquisitors (or Heralds at this point in time) good people, but with a side of sarcasm. She could never make jerk characters. She had tried it at some point, but it never felt right. Even in other games she always chooses the good route. Just in her nature, she guessed, but the sarcasm stayed no matter what. It was something she found amusing and was glad that she could share with her friends. 

Her friends. She wondered what they were doing at the moment, probably freaking out. Not that she blames them, it was her who suggested she herself go towards it, but she knows that she didn’t touch it. No, it was like she was pulled her towards the green light. Beth had tried to run to her, but Matt and Mel had held her back for which she was thankful for. Aquila couldn’t bear the thought of them getting injured, she’d rather any and all bad things that happened to be placed towards her, instead of the ones she cared about. A soft heart she had, but she’d never say it. Didn’t need to. 

Kaaras laughed and approached her, kneeling down to get to her eye level, or try to at least. He was a least a foot taller than Aquila who was only in average height, standing at 5’7’’. So even being on the ground sitting or kneeling she could see the visible height difference. 

“How are you feeling?” he asked. 

Aquila could see the small glint of concern in his eyes and she smiled at the gesture. “Better now, I guess. How long have I been asleep?” she questioned as she stretched out her legs. 

“A couple hours now I think. You were injured pretty badly, though, so it's understandable.” Kaaras replied. 

“Ah, I see.” She replied. She was grateful she felt better, though, the injuries had hurt way too much to do any movements. She wasn’t sure what she would have done had she woken up in that state with no help at all. 

_Probably just bleed out to death_ , Aquila thought sadly as she pursed her lips. 

Kaaras watched her as she contemplated her thoughts. He knew that she was thinking about the past events, but anything before that he had no idea. He wanted to ask her a few things, but had a feeling that she was lost herself. He would probably wait till he was with the others, thinking that maybe a group setting would be better. Or worse if Cassandra didn’t scare the poor girl. He laughed silently at the thought of that. She could be terrifying he gave her that, but she wasn’t a complete brute. 

“Anyways, the others wanted to talk to you if that’s alright.” He told her, watching her facial expression gauging her reaction. Aquila looked up and had a small worried look on her. “They won’t interrogate you harshly, they just want to ask a few questions. Mostly out of curiosity, probably.” He added. Aquila nodded her head as she mouth a silent ‘oh’ and stared at the tent flaps. 

“Well, I don’t blame them really. I’m confused about all this as are they.” She looked up at Kaaras, “I’m assuming they want to talk to me now, huh?” 

Kaaras smiled as he nodded his head. “Yeah, but don’t worry about it they’re good people.” Aquila smiled back at those words. She knew they were all good people, she was just unsure of _what_ she would/could tell them. Her mind was hectic with thoughts on how she would explain what had happened, much less if she should tell them that she pretty much knew **everything** that can and may happen. She honestly felt like a shitty fortune teller if anything. Her best guess was to tell them as they went along after all, the focus had been on the Inquisitor/Inquisition. Maybe she could help by giving advice to go along the right path, but this if anything was real life. What if things didn’t go out as they did in the game? Would she be able to save more people especially when **that** event happened? All of this thinking was just giving her a minor headache. 

She would have thought about it more, until her stomach growled. Loudly. “Uh…” Aquila could feel her face getting red with embarrassment. Kaaras seemed to of be caught off guard with the sudden noise, but then started to laugh. 

“I also take it that you’re hungry?” he chuckled as he could see Aquila’s face reddened. 

“Y-yeah. I don’t even remember eating anything the past couple of hours.” She mumbled in embarrassment. 

“Well, if you’re interested we have some stew made. It’s not a whole lot, but it’ll help with the hunger.” He told her as he stood up. 

“Ah, that’s perfectly fine. I’m not a particularly picky eater.” 

Kaaras nodded as he held out his hand to Aquila. She looked at his hand first before reaching out and holding onto it. With more force than he planned to used he pulled her up swiftly, causing Aquila to ram into his chest causing him to place his right foot back behind the left one to keep his balance. Flustered, he tried to apologize for the action, but Aquila laughed it off and said it was okay. She wasn’t expecting him to be that strong either way, so it surprised her as well. Kaaras realized he was still holding her hand as she laughed and quickly let go, hoping that his reddening ears weren’t noticeable. 

Aquila walked towards the tent flap and opened it. Her eyes took their time to adjust to the dimming sunlight, to which she moved her torso sideways to look at Kaaras. “Let’s go get some food ya?” Kaaras smiled and replied back, “Of course.”


	4. A Whole New World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being pretty long which is why I had separated from the previous one. I know it feels a little slow right now, but I'm trying to pace it to where it feels like I'm not rushing it. I appreciate you guys reading this though. It gives me some motivation to continue on. ^-^

Aquila and Kaaras exited the tent together. They could see that Cassandra, Varric, and Solas were sitting by the campfire. The sun was still out, but it was dipped low in the sky marking the signs of dusk approaching. They were eating the stew that already had been made. Kaaras looked at Aquila and nodded in the group’s direction. “You can go sit with them so that way I can get us both some food to eat.”

Aquila rubbed her left arm as she looked at them. They seemed to be deep in conversation, and she wasn’t sure what they would do once she sat with them. The idea made her nervous, and she shook her head slightly. She knew who they were yes, but she never _actually_ met them. She had always wanted someone she knew next to her every time her friends wanted to introduce her to other people. She wasn’t really comfortable by herself. Wallflower remember? 

Kaaras gently placed his hand on Aquila’s shoulder which made her look up to him. She saw a gentle smile graze his face. In a way, it felt reassuring, just like what her friends back home would do when she would get highly nervous. She couldn’t help, but to smile back and sighed. “You can come with me instead if you want. That way you wouldn’t face the wolves den by yourself.” He laughed. 

_More like wolf_ , Aquila thought as she glanced at Solas. That was something she definitely had to keep to herself. She could only guess what Solas would do if he found out she knew. 

Probably something bad. With magic. No thank you. 

She nodded her head, which made Kaaras squeeze the shoulder that he had his hand on. He turned and started to walk to where the food had been made and Aquila followed him like a duckling. They got to where the pot of whatever they had made was and Kaaras proceeded to grab two bowls and spoons for them. He filled the first one and gave it to Aquila. She murmured a thank you to which Kaaras smiled and nodded. He then filled his own bowl and walked back to where the group was, Aquila being in tow. They then sat on the unoccupied huge logs that surrounded the fire from a safe distance. Aquila looked down at her bowl to see what was in it. It seemed to have an oatmeal kind of texture, but it didn’t smell bad. That didn’t matter to her at this point and she dug in, eating in silence as Kaaras and the others talked amongst themselves. 

Aquila was hardly paying attention being more focused on eating and didn’t notice that they had gone quiet until she heard an inconspicuous cough from across the fire. It was then that she looked up and noticed everyone in the group was staring at her. It made her feel extremely awkward and she could only guess what was to come in a few minutes. She knew, she just knew that they were about to ask her questions. 

_Oh God, why? These people are about to interrogate me like I’m in Law & Order._ She internally groaned and sighed. Might as well get over it. 

“I’m... guessing you guys have questions for me, huh?” Aquila asked as she looked at the four people around her. They mostly just nodded their heads, with Kaaras speaking up, “Well, for starters where did you come from? You don’t sound like you’re from around here.” 

Aquila placed her near empty bowl down before answering, “Well, that’s because I’m not honestly.” 

“Are you from the Free Marches then? Rivain?” Varric asked. Aquila shook her head. “No.” 

“Anderfels then?” Cassandra interjected as she studied Aquila hard. She was trying to learn about the mysterious girl from the rift, but after much talking from Varric and Kaaras, Cassandra was trying her best to not question her harshly as they had asked previously. 

“Not that place either. To be honest, I don’t think any of you would believe me if I said where I was from. It would seem very… strange” said Aquila as she stared into the fire. She looked up from the fire to the group and could see a range of different emotions. They were all wondering what she meant no doubt, but Cassandra looked skeptical as well, so did Solas. Only Varric and Kaaras seemed genuinely curious. 

“I’ve seen and heard a lot of weird shit in my life Aquila, so I doubt this would be any different.” Varric stated with as he looked at her. Aquila snorted quietly with a smirk. Yeah, Dragon Age 2 had been an adventure alright. 

“I’m sure you have Varric, but this might be a highly odd one. Explaining might be difficult too. I’m not sure how to say it right without sounding… like a crazed person.” She replied as her shoulders sagged. 

“Don’t worry about it. Just start from the beginning and go on from there. For example, do you know how or why you fell out of a rift?” Kaaras suggested as he watched her. 

“That might be best. It could help us to figure out why we found you in the situation you were in.” added Solas from his place across the fire. He sat straight across from her, blank expression on his face. _Solas sure does love to have a poker face all the damned time._

She nodded her head in agreement, took a deep breath and started to explain the events that had lead up to her being here, starting from when she met up with her friends at the library. It became a pattern, she would be talking, one of them would ask her a question, and she’d try her best to explain. It was harder than she expected to explain what technology was, and explaining that magic didn’t exist there. They all seemed to be doubtful then, not believing her at first. “You can’t honestly be telling us the truth that magic does not exist where you’re from.” barked Cassandra. Aquila nodded her head. “It’s true. The only type of ‘magic’ that exists is sleight of hand stuff, which is more about distractions and illusions. Besides that, it doesn’t exist nor does your three races.” She added as she looked at Kaaras, Varric, and Solas. 

“What do you mean our races don’t exist?” gawked Kaaras. 

“Simply that your races don’t exist. There’s no Qunari. No dwarfs, well not in the same way at least. It’s normally used to describe really short people and I mean _really_ short people. Also, there're no elves. It’s just us humans. The only time and place elves and dwarfs exist are in stories or tales. Not the Qunari though, that’s an entirely new different thing.” she explained. They all looked shocked at this information. Aquila continued, “From what I can assume, I think the rift pulled me from my world into yours. How or why it did that, I honestly do not know. What I do know is that now I’m here.” She shrugged. 

They all stayed quite for some time, contemplating the information that Aquila had given them. She sat there with her hands on her lap, twisting her thumbs around staring into the fire as she waited to see if they had any more questions. They probably did, recalling what she had told them, she probably gave them more questions than answers. Not what she had wanted to do, but she expected it either way. One question came to mind though. How was she to explain that she pretty much knew everything that was more or less going to happen? Probably think her a liar. Or crazy. Crazy sounds about right. 

It was Solas who then spoke up. “So you really don’t know how you got here then?” he looked at her with a small frown. 

“No, sadly. I think it's more of why I got pulled here instead of how. If there was a how, it's probably because I was the one to approach it, but it still doesn't make sense on why it dropped or connected me to here.” Aquila said with a slight frown. 

Aquila decided quickly that telling them about future events was probably a dangerous thing at the moment. If anything, it would probably interrupt the flow of events. It could possibly be that some of them were key events that not matter what could not be changed. Though, what if they could be? Even if not, she would try her damn best to alter at least some of it. She'll probably tell the group more at Haven, if they allowed her to come with them. 

"I have a question though." Aquila murmured. 

"Oh? What is it?" replied Kaaras. 

Aquila shifted slightly, a feeling of nervousness settling in. "I was wondering... if, well, would it be alright if I went to Haven with you guys? There are also some things I would like to discuss, but I feel like it would be best for you and the others to know." 

"Others?" Kaaras quirked an eyebrow. 

Aquila nodded her head once. "Yes. Your council. How I know them I'll explain when we're there. It'll be easier." she told him cautiously. 

Kaaras stared at her for a while before nodding his head in agreement. “Alright then. You can come with us to Haven.” 

"Herald?” questioned Cassandra. 

“Oh, it’ll be alright. Besides it’s not like she’s said anything completely bad right?” he glanced at her as he gave her a playful wink. Aquila giggled a little bit and she heard Cassandra groan. 

“Well, this is something I really never expected Aquila.” Varric chimed in. “I still find it hard to believe about half of what you said.” She nodded, understanding how crazy it must have sounded to someone from a whole new world. _If I only had a way to show-_

She shot up from her spot. Kaaras looked at her with a concern on his face. “Aquila?” 

“Ah, wait here a moment. I’ll be right back.” She said as she turned towards the tent. Kaaras and the others watched her enter the tent for a few moments before coming out with the pack in her arms. She had a smile growing on her face. Whatever was in there had her excited. 

She sat down next in her spot next to Kaaras and opened her pack. “I was thinking of a way to show you guys some of the stuff I was talking about when I realized that some of it was in my backpack.” She explained. Aquila noticed that her bag was in disarray, not that it was always organized, but still she liked to keep it tidy when she could. It was then that Varric and Solas who were across from Aquila and Kaaras, got up to stand near her, curiosity over coming them. Cassandra got up and sat next to Kaaras, showing that she too was interested in what was in the bag. 

She first pulled out her astronomy book since it was the biggest and took up most of the space. “This is the book I was talking about. I was taking an astronomy class in college since space had always been an interest to me.” She held it in her hands as if it was a holy book, her fingers trailing slowly against the front cover.” 

“You studied the stars?” questioned Solas. Aquila looked up and nodded her head quickly, a smile forming on her face. “Yes! But it wasn’t just stars. We studied a variety of celestial objects, such as galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, and other stuff as well.” 

“Galaxies? What is a galaxy?” Solas asked. Aquila laughed softly, “I’ll explain later, since it would take up a bit of time. Ah, when we get to Haven I can lend you my book? I’m sure it’ll describe it better than I can.” She looked up at the elf. He stared at Aquila for a while before a small smile grazed his lips and he nodded his head once. “I would highly appreciate it.” 

Aquila smiled and looked back into her pack. One by one she took out her items and placed them on the ground next to her; a medium sized drawing book, a purple pouch that held her drawing materials, a notebook that she used for her notes in class, bottle of lotion, an insulated water bottle, chapstick, a small case that held two micro SD cards, portable speaker, and a solar powered charger which she was thankful for getting eventually. An artist she might be, but damn it she loved her tech as well. It was then that she brought out her phone which had her headphones connected to it, holding it to her chest. She was highly grateful that it didn’t get damaged, the case protecting it from whatever had happened to her as she fell from the rift. 

“Now this.” She started, “This is what I mean by technology. It’s not the most advanced thing, but it definitely a sentiment of what we’ve developed so far.” Aquila went on to explain the basics of her phone, the group around her in awe and subconsciously, getting closer to her. 

“Wait, so it makes a painting automatically?” Kaaras said perplexed as Aquila explained the camera function. She laughed a little bit at his confusion. “It’s not a painting, it’s called a photo and yeah it takes one instantly. It’s used to capture pictures and videos.” 

“Videos?” Cassandra asked. 

“Yeah! Like moving photos.” Aquila responded back. “Watch, I’ll show ya.” She then pressed the camera app on her phone and switched it to the ‘selfie’ mode it had. Since Kaaras was the one sitting closest to her, Aquila scooted over to him and held up her phone in front of them. Kaaras seemed confused at first until Aquila said, “Okay. Now smile Kaaras.” So he did, and she pressed a side button, a loud click coming from the phone as the picture was taken. Aquila then brought her phone towards her and opened the gallery, clicking on the newest photo of her and Kaaras. 

“See?” she showed to the group, holding it out in front of her so the others could see. Both of them were smiling in the picture, as if they had been friends for a long time. 

“That’s amazing!” Kaaras exclaimed. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” Added Cassandra, “And this a common thing where you’re from?” she asked as she stared at the photo. 

“Pretty much yeah. Like I said, we don't have magic, but we have other ways of making up for it. To be honest, I think I have way too many photos on my phone though.” She giggled as she scrolled through them. Photos of her and her friends acting like the nerds they were she thought to herself. Besides that, she had quite a bit of scenery photos. It was mostly used for ideas and inspiration since she had goals of being an environmental concept artist. It was probably a good thing she ended up taking them too, since she could show them images of her world. 

“Well, I do believe you now. You know, about the whole other world thing.” Varric concluded his hand on his chin in a thoughtful manner. 

“I don’t blame you for doubting me though, Varric. I probably would myself.” Aquila confessed. “Yeah, well at least I know you’re not just crazy from hitting your head.” He joked. 

Aquila laughed at the joke, “Thanks, Varric.” 

It was the beginning of night by the time she had finished explaining about other functions of her phone. They probably would have been there all night, but Cassandra was persistent that they all rest for the trip ahead. Aquila was surprised she was still tired, considering she was asleep a few hours ago. Since they were already in a camp they decided to let the scouts be on the watch. The others were heading to their tents when she realized she didn’t know where she would sleep. Kaaras looked back and caught her being distressed, realizing the same thing she did. 

_Oh._

He then went over to her and clasped her shoulder again. “If you want, you can share the tent me and Cass are in.” 

Aquila looked up at him, contemplating the offer. “You sure? Is there enough room?” she asked shyly. 

He waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it. The tents are pretty big anyway.” He smiled as he looked down at her. “I’ll be between you and Cass anyways that way you won’t have to worry about her tying you up.” He said as he laughed. A loud disgruntled sigh came from the tent behind him and both Kaaras and Aquila laughed. “That sounds fine to me Kaaras and besides I’m not worried too much about Cass.” She added. 

He nodded his head walking towards the tent with Aquila next to him. He then opened the tent flap and held it open for Aquila, letting her go in first. Cassandra was already on her sleeping furs that were on the left side, settling down to sleep. With that Aquila headed to the sleeping furs on the right side, the ones where she had woken up from her nap. She then laid down and sighed, the soft fur and the smell of earth lulling her to sleep. Kaaras came crawling in between the two laying people, trying to give both some space since he was a bigger person. Aquila then turned to her right side, facing the tent wall. She closed her eyes to bring herself to sleep. 

“G’night Kaaras” she whispered, not wanting to disturb the sleeping woman next to them. 

Kaaras chuckled softly, tucking his arm under his head with the other on his lower chest. “Night Aquila.” He whispered back. 

And so a silence fell over the camp, the party sleeping, waiting for the next day to come.


	5. A New Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a slightly short chapter. I was debating on waiting to post it, but I decided that it was fine where it ended. I might do some more editing later, but that's for another time. Cheers!

The soft light of early morning seeped into the tent. Kaaras slowly woke up from his sleep, keeping his eyes closed as to try to block the incoming light. He recalled yesterday’s event, which was something he never expected. The girl was called Aquila and according to her, she came from another world. Now, he would have thought her crazy or even deluded from the fall his companions and him witnessed from afar as she fell out of the rift that was on top of a huge boulder, but the items she showed them proved otherwise. She seemed to be very ecstatic to show them everything, especially when she showed the, what was it called? Smartphone? Yeah, what an odd thing it was. Kaaras wasn’t sure about the others, but he was simply amazed by the small device in her hands. Clearly her world was more advanced, but the prospect of there being no magic? He wasn’t so sure about that. Magic had its uses, and he was by no means completely against it. It was just a foreign concept to him.

He sighed as he collected his thoughts, lazily stroking the soft fabric that was snuggled against him. 

_Wait… WHAT?_

Kaaras eyes opened immediately and slowly turned his head to his right then looked down. There in the crook of his arm was Aquila, sleeping against him as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He felt his breath hitch as his heart beat quickened. Some of her hair was sprawled across her cheek, and her hand was on top of his chest. She seemed to be in a deep sleep still, and unaware of the position they were in. 

_How…? When did this happen? Oh Maker, I hope Cassandra isn’t awake yet._

He slowly turned his head to the left, slightly lifting it up from the arm it was on. There on his left side was an empty space. The sleeping furs put away, leaving only him and Aquila in the tent. 

Kaaras then plopped his head back and groaned. _That means that Cass saw and has probably told the others already. I can already hear Varric making comments about it. Great._

He felt Aquila fidget slightly and held still. She snuggled closer into him, which didn’t help him calm down at all whatsoever. He knew she was going to wake up eventually, and didn’t want her to freak out. Maker knows that would sound bad from outside the tent. So as carefully and quietly as he could, he moved his arm from underneath her head and gently scooted away from her, trying to keep his movements as minimal as possible. He slowly stood up and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to tame some of the tangles. He looked down on Aquila and let go of the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. She had looked peaceful as she cuddled next to him and frankly…. Adorable. More adorable than what should be necessary from just meeting her. Kaaras shook his head to make the thoughts leave. _I shouldn’t be thinking these things. This was all just an accident. Something to laugh about later… Or not._ He sighed as his head dropped. He thought to himself that he should head out and get something to eat already. Aquila would wake up on her own soon. So he took a deep breath and looked straight away, turning to exit the tent leaving Aquila by herself. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Aquila was surprised at how comfortable she felt. Sure she was sleeping on the ground, but the earthy smells and warm fur was oddly soothing. She slowly sat up and stretched her arms and legs, getting all the kinks out from her bones. She’s normally not a morning person at all, but for whatever reason she felt highly refreshed as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Aquila could hear sounds from outside the tent, which was probably the camp becoming more alive as the day started. 

_If I remember correctly, we’re on our way to Haven._ Aquila pondered to herself, then got giddy. _Oooooooo, that means I get to see the Commander. Oh, girl!_ While she wasn’t busy getting her heart crushed by Solas in Inquisition, she normally romanced Cullen not matter how dorky and cute the cut scenes were. _Makes me feel better at least. Stupid egg._

She sighed heavily as her eyes closed. Aquila debated on going back to laying down, but she had a gut feeling if she took too long Cassandra would just barge into the tent and drag her out. It wouldn’t really surprise her, that’s just how she is. Well, she does change a bit later on, but that wasn’t until _**way**_ later and if, only if, she was still alive. Ugh. 

With that last thought she stood up and dusted her pants. The lighting in the tent wasn't much, but she could see that her black jeans looked to be pretty dirty with a few rips here and there. The biggest was on her right thigh, where the look of a scar was. She figured that was one of the bigger offenders of her losing so much blood. Her jacket wasn’t all that better either and she hoped that they had a seamstress of some kind back at Haven to repair the damage. Aquila looked around the tent and saw that Cass had put away her sleeping furs. _It’s only fair I do the same. Since I wasn’t really planned into this camping trip in the first place._ Aquila wasn’t so sure on how to properly put it away, but she tried anyways. She knelt next to the furs as she folded it into a neat pile and placed in on the right side. _Eh, close enough._

With that done Aquila stood up and dusted herself off. She then bent to pick up her backpack, rummaging through it to find her phone. She found it tucked on the side, with her headphones wrapped around it. When she pressed the home button the time came up, showing it to be 8:00 a.m. She checked the battery life and it showed to be around 70%. _Not too bad_ , Aquila thought to herself. _I hardly used it last night anyways and I just got a new battery too so my phone shouldn’t die often. Thank you to whoever made this possible you magnificent bastard._

She made sure everything was in her bag and exited the tent, slowly walked to where the party was. She could see that they were already eating, and it made her unsure if they had saved her some. They weren’t cruel, but she didn’t want to over step any boundaries they might have. As Aquila approached them she could hear some of the conversation. 

“It’s not like that Varric!” 

“Of course Smiles. It was just out of the blue. I always thought you had more self-control.” Varric jested. 

“I do! It’s not like it was on purpose! Cassandra! Why did you have to mention it?!” complained Kaaras. 

What they were talking about Aquila had no idea. As she got closer Varric was the first to notice and grinned. “Why hey there sleepy head. We were just about to send for you.” 

“Well no need to worry about that. I don’t like being shaken back to consciousness you know.” Laughed Aquila as she glanced at Cassandra. She rolled her eyes and sighed, “I would not have done that. I know how to keep my hands to myself anyways.” She commented as she looked to Kaaras. 

“Cass!” Kaaras whined. Aquila looked at the three of them confused. There was some joke going on and she had no idea what it was. She shrugged at the thought, _probably some inside joke. Oh well._

Aquila was about to turn around to go get some food when she accidently bumped into an object behind her. Surprised, she looked and saw that it was Solas, with that same damn blank expression he loved to wear. She saw that there was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes, and that made her blush slightly. 

_Good job idiot._ She cursed internally, mentally facepalming herself. 

“Good morning to you, Aquila.” Solas said, interrupting Aquila’s thoughts. 

“Ah, good morning Solas.” She responded back, trying to not blush like a silly fan girl. 

“I hope you slept well? Kaaras is known for moving quite a bit. I’m sure Cassandra would know about it.” Solas asked as a slight grin graced his face. 

“Not you too Solas.” She heard Kaaras groan in the background. 

_What?_ “Ah, yeah. Yeah! I actually slept pretty well. I didn’t realize the furs were so soft. And warm!” 

Solas seemed to be amused by Aquila's answer. “I’m glad to hear it. Here.” He reached for Aquila’s hand and placed a sizeable chunk of jerky into her hand. Despite Aquila’s reasoning, or trying at least, her heart fluttered at the simple gesture. “We leave in a bit and it would be wise to have some energy before we began our journey back to Haven.” With that he walked past her and sat with the others, adding a comment here and there as they teased Kaaras. 

Aquila nodded her head as he walked past her, knowing that she was going to need some calories in her for the trip. So she chewed on it meticulously, listening to the banter amongst the group giggling once in a while as they messed with Kaaras. She glanced at Kaaras as he tried to defend himself from whatever Varric had said. _At least he’s not a dick_ , she thought to herself. 

With breakfast done, the group packed up refilling up on potions and Kaaras doing a last minute requisition. Aquila checked her bag again to make sure everything was set and put her phone and headphones in one of her jackets pocket. She also filled up her water bottle as well, knowing that the trip would make her thirsty at some point. Her friends back home had always joked on how she could seem to be highly mature, but then out comes her purple water bottle that had little bear faces on it. She just really liked cute things damn it. With everything set and done they set out for Haven, with Aquila being just a tad bit excited.


	6. An Unexpected Companion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooo, boy this is probably the longest chapter I've written so far lol  
> What's that two chapters in two day?! No way! I already had half of chapter six typed so I figured I'd finish up today. Anyways I hope you enjoy!  
> Comments and kudos and whatnot are highly appreciated! ^-^

It was midafternoon and the sun’s light was bathing everything. It wasn’t really too hot, but the heat made Aquila unzip her jacket a bit to allow in some of the cool wind onto her chest. She probably would have taken off her entire jacket, but there were some minor problems:

1) She was still quite insecure about herself. Particularly, her chest. Not that it was small no, she had the great luck of being well endowed and the shitty luck of having the confidence to deal with it. She’s never been model skinny like her mother wanted her to be since high school. Instead, she came out with the curves that were probably too much for her to have. _Yay, puberty._ Didn’t help that she was introverted as well, so baggyish clothes it was, at least to make her not seem so big. She’s improved a bit since then, but the lacking self-confidence remained there. 

2) She’s not sure how the group would react to the “markings” on her. Well, her tattoos really. She had an intricate Hylian crest design on her upper right arm and on her left she had a water color style wolf that also blended into a three headed dragon underneath it. That took up most of her upper left arm. _Game of Thrones fan anyone?_ Aquila had no idea how she would explain that, given the implications of what those creatures mean. 

_Oh dear._

So wearing her jacket it was then, at least until it starts getting colder she could just zip it back up. The group traveled on and much to their amusement watched Aquila as she explored the area around them as they moved. It was highly amusing to watch a grown woman look at things with the curiosity of a child. After a while Varric proceeded to calling her Cat since she had the habit of getting close to whatever caught her interest and wanting to touch it. When she wasn’t doing that she just took pictures with her phone. Plants, animals, candid photos of the group, everything. Aquila was loving every moment of it. 

It was the second day of the trip, only needing about a few more to reach Haven. They all took turns to keep a lookout the previous night, except for Aquila. She was by no means a fighter, even though she’s taken several martial arts classes since she was a child. It became a running joke between her and her friends that she had Chun Li thighs (and butt) because she had some powerful leg muscles, but fighting with weapons? Yeah, no, that’s not going to happen. Plus, she never told the group about that, or much about her really. They didn’t ask, so she never bothered to. So Aquila slept peacefully last night, happy that soon she’d be in Haven and maybe even get a chance to see the lion. 

Morning was the same routine as yesterdays. Wake up, eat some food, watch Kaaras get teased by whatever they were talking about, and move on out. She had no idea what they were teasing him about, except that it seemed to always make him flustered. Which to be kind of honest, was kinda adorable. Aquila thought today was going to be normal, except they came across something none of them expected. Aquila was ahead of the group talking to Kaaras about various things, such as the events that had happened so far and how they were fairing. He told her that the Chantry had denounced him, called him a heretic, blah blah blah (in his words). Aquila laughed at this, telling him she thought as much and that she wasn’t surprised really. The other three looked on from behind them, watching the conversation between the two. It was Varric who first spoke up, not being too loud so that way the duo wouldn’t hear him. 

“How long do you think it’ll take till he admits he has a crush on her?” he joked. “That hardly seems appropriate Varric.” Cassandra responded flatly. 

“Oh come on, Seeker. You have to admit that he looks at her with a certain gleam in his eye.” He nodded his head in the duo’s direction. “Though Cat seems to be oblivious to it.” He chuckled. 

“I’m sure the Herald wouldn’t date someone so young, Varric.” Solas added. Varric shrugged, “You’d never know. Some people like their partners’ way younger than them. It’s not something completely unheard of.” 

“While you may have a point. I’m sure the Herald shouldn’t be seen courting someone who looks to barely out of their youth.” Responded Solas as he looked at Kaaras and Aquila deep in conversation. “Also adding to the fact that we really don’t know much about her, besides where she came from.” 

Varric was about to say something back, but was interrupted by Kaaras. “What are you three whispering about?” he asked as the group still walked. Varric shrugged, a grin settling on his face. “Oh, nothing too important Smiles. I was just talking with these two here and came to realize we don’t know much about Cat.” 

Aquila looked back as she heard her given nickname. Varric was known for them. “What about me?” she asked with a puzzled look. 

Varric chuckled. ”Just that we don’t know much about you. You never really introduced yourself besides your name.” 

Aquila tilted her head slightly. “Oh?” she shrugged, “You guys never really asked. Didn’t think it was that important honestly, but I’m assuming you want to ask me a question.” 

Varric nodded his head, already aware of the question he wanted to ask. “Well for starters, we were just wondering how old you were. You seem to know quite a bit for someone your age.” 

“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to ask a woman’s age Varric.” Kaaras cautioned. He probably would of “attempted” to scold Varric, but didn’t since Aquila started to laugh. He looked at her confused as she eventually stopped laughing. 

“You know that’s not the first time I get asked that question. I’m not offended by it at all.” She glanced at all of them before landing on Varric. “How old do you think I am anyways? I’m curious to know what you all think.” Aquila giggled as she look at the four of them. “Well Solas and I here think you’re around 18. Seeker think 17 at most. You do look like you’re barely out of youth so…”he shrugged. Aquila nodded her head then looked at Kaaras. “And you? What do you think?” she asked curiously. Kaaras seemed to stutter a bit then looked away slightly, still walking in the direction they were going in. 

“I- I thought the same as well. I’m sorry if I’ve pestered you about such adult things.” 

This got Aquila a bit lost, tilting her head again. “There’s no need to apologize Kaaras. Besides,” she twirled around walking backwards as she looked onto the group before continuing. She then pointed at herself and smiled, “Ya’ll are kind of off, but I’m actually 23.” 

There was a small pause of silence, the only sounds coming from the ground as the group walked. 

“Wait. What?!” 

“But you look so young!” 

Aquila giggled at their shocked expressions. If she was being honest, it always amused her when people found out about her actual age. It got funnier as each year passed. 

“Well shit Cat. You need to tell me your secret then, because the problems with the Breach are making me age faster then I want.” Said Varric jesting. This made Aquila laugh. “No, no, no Varric. I don’t have any secrets, well none that I’m aware of. If I find anything I’ll let you know.” She then playfully winked at him. 

He laughed loudly at her response, “I’ll hold you to your promise then.” Then winked back at her. 

She smiled, “Well now you all know. Though I feel like I’m the baby of the group here.” She mused, turning to walk forwards again. She then looked towards Kaaras. “How old are you by the way?” It was never really specified in the game how old the Inquisitor was, so it was mostly up to the players imagination. 

“Ah, I’m 27 myself.” He responded blankly. 

“Oh. So there’s not much of an age difference between us then.” Aquila commented as they kept on walking. 

“Yeah, so it shouldn’t be a problem when you two start to-” Whatever Varric was going to say got interrupted when Cassandra nudged him. Hard. Kaaras just glared at him as his ears turned slightly red while Solas just sighed and Aquila was, as always, confused. 

“Well,” Varric intoned, rubbing his right shoulder, “No need to be so harsh Seeker.” 

“Ugh.” 

“Can we just carry on please?” Groaned Kaaras. Aquila was still wondering what Varric was going to say and was just about to ask, but instead heard a noise and stopped. The others seemed to have noticed as well and stopped in their tracks, slowly and quietly taking out their weapons. Aquila started to worry slightly, she had no weapons, and knew that she would probably freak out if it were bandits. After all, she’s not from here and the dynamics of this world varied from hers. They waited for another sound, this time it sounded more muffled, and like… a whimper? It definitely sounded like one. Animal like too. Without thinking, Aquila headed toward the noise. Kaaras, being the closest to her tried to grab her, but couldn’t since he brought his daggers out. They all called out to her, eventually following. 

Common sense told Aquila that this was a bad idea, but as always her curiosity got the better of her. She heard the whine once more. Closer this time and was able to get a better direction of where to go. She ended up in a small clearing, and the sight in front of her made her gasp. There in the middle lay a dead animal. Not just any animal no, it was that of a grey furred wolf and a pretty decent sized one as well. The sight made her heart break a little, then she scanned the surroundings. It looked like there was a fight, probably with another animal with the wolf being the defeated in this scene. She was still focused on the corpse when she heard another small cry. Carefully she walked towards the corpse and was surprised by what she saw. There, lying right next to the wolf was a pup. A wolf pup trying to get closer to whatever heat the female wolf had left. This broke Aquila’s heart as she knelt down. The pup seemed to be wary of her, but after some coaxing came close enough for her to pick up. 

In one way or another, Aquila had a sort of affinity for animals. On days where she would walk home it never failed for her to have up to anywhere between 1-6 dogs following her. Another joke her friends came to as they started to call her the “Dog Whisperer”. Aquila laughed about it, because hey there was some truth to it. 

She held the pup close to her chest, stroking the fur as it snuggled up to her. He was a beautiful shade of black, with a small white crest in the middle of his chest. She didn’t hear the sounds of the others coming with Kaaras kneeling next to her. 

“Looks like she tried to defend her only pup.” Kaaras noted, looking at the carcass of the dead mother. 

“Yeah, poor thing though. I wonder how long it’s been out here like this.” Aquila wondered. She gently lifted the pup from her curious as to what the gender was. “Ah, it’s a boy.” She smiled and brought it close to her face. The pup ended up licking her nose and softly barked. Aquila giggled, while Kaaras looked on smiling. She brought the pup close to her chest again and stood up, turning around to face the other three. 

“You know Cat, it’s probably not a good idea to run off like that. These parts are dangerous with bandits and the war between Templars and Mages going on.” Varric told Aquila, scolding her slightly. 

“I know, but I was just curious. I’m pretty sure bandits don’t whine.” She said quietly, looking down on the pup in her arms. Varric sighed, “I know. Just try not to do it again. Someone might get sad if you were to run off into the unknown again.” He winked towards Kaaras. 

Kaaras blushed, looking away and awkwardly coughing. “Anyways,” he started “We should get back to the trail. We still have a way to go.” 

Aquila nodded. She then lifted up the top part of her jacket and placed the puppy underneath it, making it rest upon her chest. The poor thing was shivering, but after a few seconds he seemed to appreciate the heat resting his head upon her right breast. She smiled down on him as if it was her child. Wolves had ironically always been her favorite animals, and holding one so close to her made her filled with joy. 

“You don’t really plan on bringing it with us do you?” asked Cassandra. She and Solas stood behind Varric, being quiet until now. 

“Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?” 

“Do you even know how to raise an animal? Specifically a wolf?” Solas questioned blankly. Aquila looked towards him, a questioning look forming in her eyes. 

“No. I’ve never raised a wolf before, but I have had pets all my life! I’ve raised my dog back home since she was a puppy herself.” 

“But a wolf is not a pet. It is a wild animal. How would you tame it? If they even could be tamed. This is not the same.” He responded. A hint of disapproval in his eyes. 

“I know it’s not the same Solas.” Aquila quipped back, slightly agitated. “Also while I know it is not the same as having a dog or a pet, I will **not** leave him behind to die a slow death in the wild. His mother died to defend him from whatever creature was near and now I will take on the role of protector and companion for him, whether or not you agree. He deserves a fair chance. Yes, I know wolves are seen as fierce, dangerous creatures, but they are also majestic, powerful, and highly loyal.” She hugged the pup closer to her, glancing at him. Aquila gently petted the top of the pups’ head, then looked up to Solas a fierce look gathering in her eyes, “I. Will. Not. Leave him alone.” 

She wasn’t sure about it, but she could have sworn she saw something flicker in his eyes. Admiration? Surprise perhaps? She was too annoyed to think about it, but then realized that the other three had gone silent watching exchange between the two. Aquila took a deep breath and released it, understanding that she probably sounded like a child throwing a tantrum. 

“I’m sorry for the outburst Solas. I just really don’t want to see him suffer a slow death for no reason.” At that moment the pup popped his head up, licking her chin and making Aquila giggle softly. After a few seconds, Solas shook his head. “No forgive me as well. I thought that you had plans on just making him as any other pet, but that seems to not be the case.” 

“Well, now that you two have made up, let’s get moving on shall we?” Varric chimed in. 

“Agreed. Let us move out.” Cass responded as she put away her shield and sword. The three of them went ahead first, leaving Aquila and Kaaras behind. Aquila looked down to the pup she cradled smiling to herself as she stroked the top of his head. Kaaras then came closer to her, placing a hand on her right shoulder. “Have you thought of a name?” he asked. She shook her head. “No not yet, but I’ll think of one as we walk.” Kaaras smiled and nodded walking a few paces in front of her. “Let’s head on yeah? Before the others start to get ideas.” He said with a slight bitter tone. “Ideas? Ideas about what?” Aquila asked as she started walking besides Kaaras. 

“Ah, er, nothing important really.” He stammered, rubbing the back of his head looking to side. Aquila raised one of her eyebrows, but didn’t push the subject. So they walked together in a comfortable silence, Aquila holding the pup as he fell asleep. 

_Oh shit._ She suddenly thought to herself, _I just in one way or another I stood up to Solas. Like a challenge almost. Fuck. But he seemed to have been okay with it? Sort of? I can never tell with him. Man, I hope he doesn't hate me after this._ She sighed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Night time approached and they eventually made camp. They all sat around the fire, eating and resting from the day’s walk. Aquila sat cross-legged, the pup from earlier sleeping on her lap. She was concerned that he was hungry. Kaaras had offered to go hunt a small animal for it to eat, so Aquila agreed and waited for him, playing with the pup until he came back. After a while he came back holding onto a few dead nugs. “We need some food to you know.” Kaaras joked, which made her giggle. Aquila didn’t know much about skinning an animal so she let him do it as she watched on. With everything set and done the four of them ate, with Aquila giving the little wolf pup pieces of the nug for him to eat. 

“Have you thought of a name for him yet?” Kaaras asked as he watched the pup settled down to sleep in Aquila’s lap. “I’ve thought about it for a while yes, and I think I found one I liked.” Smiling, she looked back up at Kaaras. 

“Beowulf.” 

“Beowulf? Never heard that before. Is it a name from your world?” Varric asked. Aquila nodded her head. “It is! It’s an Old English epic poem that dates back several hundred years. I’d go into more detail, but I don’t think I’d remember most of it considering I’m pretty sleepy.” She yawned for emphasis blinking her eyes to keep some tears at bay. 

“If you’re tired Aquila, you can go ahead and sleep. I’ll be keeping first watch.” Kaaras told her then looked towards the others. “I’ll wake one of you up for the next shift.” 

“Agreed.” Responded Cassandra as she got up and headed to the tent she, Kaaras, and Aquila shared. 

“Well, if that’s that then goodnight.” Varric got up and stretched heading to his tent that he shared with Solas. “Do try to keep your hands to yourself this time Smiles.” He winked as he entered the tent. Kaaras glared at him, the tips of his ears reddening. 

“Ha. Ha. Funny Varric.” 

Aquila giggled at the jest. Kaaras was fun to tease with, even though she had no idea what they kept on referring to, but that’s how inside jokes worked normally. She gently lifted up Beowulf into her arms, who gently fidgeted and went back to sleep. Aquila then stood up herself. She walked to the tent, but before entering she looked back to Kaaras who was looking out past the fire. Aquila smiled to herself. “Goodnight Kaaras.” That seemed to bring him out of his thoughts. He blinked once and turned to Aquila, smiling as he nodded his head. “Night Aquila.” She nodded back at him and headed inside the tent, ready to sleep and to continue the journey tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo for a bit more of information Aquila is more on the chubbish side. If I had to guess she would be around a size 8-10ish? She maybe considered "fat", but she's also fit as well. The Chun Li joke came about because that's what I get called to myself haha. I'm not entirely fit nor thin, but I can make a mean kick. So yeah that's the inspiration as well :P. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Next one I plan on them reaching Haven and having Aquila meeting the Commander. Will it go smoothly or horrendously? Who knows lol


	7. Haven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait guys! It's approaching the end of the semester so I don't have much time to work on this story. I hope this chapter makes up for it though! Aquila and the gang finally reach Haven and things well.... They don't go as expected. In any case, enjoy!
> 
> Holy wow I can't believe this story has gotten passed 400 hits and almost 40 kudos! This is something I never really expected haha. Thank you all!

Aquila wasn’t sure where she was at the moment, though she had a strong feeling she knew. It looked to be her family’s summer home. Her father had purchased four different ones in different locations over the years. In the end, it was the 2 story cabin by a lake that ended up being her favorite. Sure, she didn’t like to be outside often, but being here made her feel a contented peace. She walked up to the dock that was on the lake and moved towards the end. When she got there, she inhaled deeply, taking in all the scents that surrounded her. The scents that she remembered.

_The Fade sure is an amazing place. Well, without demons at least._

She then sat down, making her legs dangle at the knees on the edge of the deck. There was something oddly blissful about it. It wasn’t hot nor cold, and the water moved lazily. The clear blueness reflecting the light from the sun. She wasn’t wearing her jacket here, just in her shirt that she wore underneath it and she was perfectly fine with that. There she thought about the past few days. If she were any other person, she would probably still be in shock, not that she wasn’t. No, surprisingly she had adjusted well. Too well, even for her. Adaption was something she had to learn through her life, and a clear and calm head as well. This, where she was, this was something that came out of the left field. The one thing that puzzled her was on how _right_ it felt to be here. Maybe it was all in her mind, but she hasn’t felt this accepted internally in a long time. 

Aquila was still deep in thought when a noise from behind her snapped her out of her thinking. 

_Oh shit. Please don’t be a demon. Please don’t be a demon. **PLEASE DON’T BE A DEMON.**_

Slowly, she turned, twisting her body from her current sitting position to look at where the noise came from. What she saw made her breath hitch. There in all its beautiful glory was the wolf standing 6 feet away. The same wolf that her and the others had found dead, with Beowulf as the only survivor. Her stunning deep blue eyes watched Aquila, her stare never wavering. 

Aquila was completely taken aback, and without thinking quietly breathed, “It’s you.” 

The wolf responded with a nod then responded without skipping a beat, “Tis I.” 

This made Aquila’s eyes widen. The wolf seemed to have noticed her reaction and “laughed”. It sounded more like quiet barking, but she could hear a gentle laugh as well. “I did not mean to startle you child. Forgive me.” 

Quickly, Aquila shook her head, “Ah, no need to apologize. It’s not often I come across talking wolves you know.” She smiled back at the female wolf in front of her. She felt no sense of violence, more of a calmness, a safety that a mother would had. The wolf began to approach her till she was next to Aquila, sitting to the left of her, looking out into the lake. Aquila was watching for the wolf for a bit before she turned her attention forward, both watching the calm lake with a contented silence. 

“I came here to thank you.” The wolf eventually explained. This caught Aquila’s attention. “To… thank me?” She then turned to the wolf who was still looking out onto the lake. The wolf nodded at her confused response. “Yes. For a while I was worried about my pup. Worried if he would succumb to a slow death, or be taken by the creatures of the forest. He was alone for a few days with no one to care for him. It made my spirit unrestful, and I probably would have been in despair had something happened to him.” She then turned her head to Aquila, “But then you came along. At first I was concerned, after all humans have hunted my kind for a long time, but I saw no malice come from you. My spirit, or I, watched as you approached him. There was a kindness in your demeanor and in your heart I did not expect.” She did her quiet laugh again. “It seemed that he took an automatic liking to you.” 

Aquila smiled back and gazed downwards, looking at her feet as the swung over the edge. “It’s not anything special really. I just couldn’t abandon him. No. It would have been wrong and I would not let him suffer a cruel fate. To be honest, I felt attached to him the moment I held him. Not as just a small creature, but as a companion, a friend.” She shrugged. ”I just feel like I’m more… familiar? With them. I’m not sure how to put it to words. I was never really good at describing things.” Aquila stopped swinging her feet, and looked up, staring forward. “I wish I knew what he thought though. I want to make sure he is content and feels safe.” The wolf only responded with a nod. After a few more quiet minutes, the wolf stood up and began walking back down the dock. “Come. I have something to show you.” 

Aquila watched the wolf and after a few moments she stood up and followed her. They walked in a peaceful silence and after a time she asked a question. “What did you want to show me?” 

“Something that I think you would highly appreciate and be happy with. Think of it as a gift.” 

“Ah, as you say.” She replied curiously. She wondered what the “gift” was. Common sense would have told her to ask more questions before following, but she felt that it was not necessary. This was Beowulf’s mother, and Aquila was sure that the mother wolf would not want to harm her son’s protector. It was after sometime that she noticed that they weren’t by the cabin anymore. If anything the scenery changed to look like that of a wooded area. From the color schemes and her senses, she guessed that she was somewhere in the Hinterlands, where all of this had started. After a while they came to a small clearing that was surrounded by trees. 

“What is this place? A clearing?” questioned Aquila. 

“Yes.” Replied the wolf. She went ahead of Aquila, turning around once she got in the middle and sat, facing towards Aquila. 

“Now, come kneel in front of me. There is something I must do.” 

Aquila did what the wolf told her to do, making her come face-to-face with the mother wolf. “Now, I want you to stay calm.” She explained with a tone of command in her voice. “What I’m about to do, should not scare you.” The wolf looked deep into Aquila’s eyes. “Do you understand child?” 

Aquila nodded her head once. “I do. You have my trust.” 

The wolf nodded her head back in acknowledgement. In one quick motion, the wolf’s head leaned towards her, the top of her head coming to rest upon her chest. After a few seconds Aquila felt a warm, tingly sensation emit from the place of contact. The wolf pulled back her head and watched as a glowing tattoo in the style of a halla head with intricate horns developed in the middle of her chest. Aquila couldn’t exactly see it, but when she placed her hand over her chest. She could still feel the warmth radiating from the mark. Confused, she looked towards the wolf with a puzzled look. 

“What happened?” 

“Essentially, I gifted you with a way to communicate with my son. This is an old type of magic, lost some time long ago. After a while, when you’re able to gain a better grip on it, you should be able to do more than talk with my son. What that would be exactly, I cannot say.” 

Aquila was surprised, her eyebrows lifting as she made a silent “oh”. She glanced downwards, her hand closing into a lazy fist over her chest. 

“Thank you.” Aquila looked back up. “I’m really grateful for this.” 

The wolf bowed her head slightly, “Of course young one.” With that said, she got up and started to walk away, leaving Aquila still kneeling on the ground. It was after she reached the edge of the clearing that Aquila spoke up. 

“Wait!” 

The wolf looked back, turning to face her. 

“Yes?” 

“I’m sorry for never asking, but I just wanted to know. What is your name? Ah, if you have one I mean. That is if you want to tell me. Or not. It’s up to you.” She sputtered, face turning red at the slight embarrassment she felt for being awkward. The huffed quietly, sounding close to a snort, amused at Aquila’s stammering. “No need to be embarrassed,” she lifted her head up, pride beaming from her entire body, “I apologize for not introducing myself properly earlier. My name is Lupa.” 

Aquila bowed her head slightly wanting to show respect towards the wolf. “Thank you for this Lupa. I’ll treasure it dearly.” 

Lupa bowed back, “I’m sure you will.” With that said she walked away, shimmering the farther she got until Aquila could no longer see her. 

Aquila looked up, watching the clouds move lazily across the sky as she recalled what just happened. After a few moments she smiled to herself and shook her head. 

“It’s time to wake up soon anyways.” 

~~~~~~~~xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx~~~~~~~~~ 

It was the final day of the trip. Kaaras told Aquila that they should reach Haven by midday, and she couldn’t have been happier. The others seemed to be amused by her excitement, and even though Kaaras wouldn’t out right admit it, found it to be extremely adorable when Aquila saw snow. Varric had asked her if she had ever seen snow before to which Aquila responded with a no. She explained that where she lived it was mostly hot weather, though once it came to winter the weather itself was unpredictable. 

“Sorry if I seem so childish.” Aquila mumbled as the group walked, her face turning red from both the chilly air and embarrassment. 

“No need to worry about that Cat.” Varric spoke from behind her. “Everyone gets excited about something. I’m pretty sure some people find it to be amusing one way or another.” He glanced to Kaaras who was at his side and smirked knowingly. Kaaras himself blushed and looked away, not wanting to be teased by the Dwarf next to him. 

Aquila didn’t see Kaaras reaction to the comment, mostly because she had her hood up since she had started to get cold. Sure it was winter where she originally was before ending up here, but damn it never got this cold. She was shivering for a while, Kaaras being the most concerned for her and offering to give her his leather jacket. She declined, stating that he needed it the most since it was also part of his armor. He would have argued more, but then Aquila looked down to the pup that was trotting next to her. All she did was ask if Beowulf was tired and liked to be carried. The pup barked back, to which Aquila seemed to understand and lifted him up, tucking Beowulf into the inside of her jacket. He seemed contented by this as did Aquila, commenting on how warm he was. 

After a few hours they finally reached the gates to Haven. It seemed to be much bigger than what in game showed. Aquila wasn’t surprised considering that most large areas where always scaled down, but even so, it simply amazed her. The group continued on walking, heading towards the middle of the town. As they came closer to the campfire where Varric normally was, a messenger approached them. 

“Ser! I have a message for you from the Council. They wish to see you as soon as possible.” He paused for a moment to look at Aquila, “And to bring along the traveler you met in the Hinterlands.” Kaaras and Aquila both looked at each other and Aquila just shrugged in response. 

“Ah, sure. Okay. Tell them to meet me in the war room. I’ll be there in a bit.” 

The messenger then saluted, and took off to deliver the request from Kaaras. “You know, I kinda would have liked to have a bath, or at least wash my hair.” Mused Aquila. Kaaras looked back towards the girl standing next to him. She seemed to have a slight amused smile as watch the messenger disappear into the sea of people. He giggled, “I’m sure you’ll be able to take one afterwards.” 

She looked back to him, a sarcastic look upon her face. “Oh yes, sure, because I really don’t have dried blood **still** in my hair and clothes. Nah man, it must be some type of new dye that doesn’t seem to work at all.” Her snarky remark made them both laugh, and it wasn’t till they were done laughing that they realized the other companions had already taken off to their places. Aquila also noticed that a few people started to glance at her and she assumed it was because of the strange outfit she wore (well, strange to them at least). Some of her hair flowed from the opening of her hood, so when people saw her from the front they sometimes did a double take. She found it to be quite hilarious if she was being honest. 

“Well, no need to make them wait Kaaras. Shall we go?” 

Kaaras looked down on the girl, smiling as he started to walk with Aquila following. “Of course. The sooner we go, the less likely they’ll fret on me for always being late.” This made Aquila giggle. “I’m sure you’ll be fine Kaaras.” Beowulf then popped his head up from Aquila’s jacket, making a few barks as they approached the Chantry building. 

“Where are we going? We’re going to meet some people Beo.” The pup barked back as if he was asking a question. Well, that’s what it looked like to Kaaras and the people who were walking by anyways. 

“Because we have to little pup. There are important matters to discuss.” 

Kaaras opened the chantry door for them. Aquila thanked him to which he nodded back with a grin. The two walked down the main hall, getting closer to the door at the end. It was before they went through the door that Beowulf was yapping. 

“You want to walk in with me? Do you promise to behave yourself if you do?” Aquila asked with a friendly tone. Beowulf barked once and licked Aquila’s chin. 

She laughed, “Fine, fine, but remember. Behave okay?” She then opened up her jacket more, maneuvering her arms and hands to get a grip on the pup to place him down on the ground. Beowulf walked to the door and barked once, as if telling the two to go on in already. 

Kaaras found this to be highly amusing, watching the two of them communicate with each other. It was as if she was talking to a mabari, they were known for being intelligent creatures. He chuckled to himself then approached the door and placed his hand on the handle. “Well, ready?” He looked towards Aquila who was behind him. She nodded optimistically with a smile. “Yes sir.” Kaaras smiled and nodded once opening the door that led to the War Council. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~xxxxxxxxxxxxx~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

To say that Aquila was both excited and terribly nervous is an understatement. Here in this room lay, what she considered, to be the brains of the operation. Kaaras may, eventually lead the Inquisition, but here were the three people who did the operations to the best of their expertise. 

Kaaras stepped through the door first, with Aquila following a few short seconds after, Beowulf trailing behind her. The council seemed to be deep in conversation, until they heard Aquila close the heavy wooden door, making them all look up. Kaaras approached the war table, a look of pride and calmness gracing his face. Aquila stayed next to the door, with only Beowulf following Kaaras and sitting next to him. 

“Greetings everyone! I’m quite sure we have much to discuss.” Kaaras addressed the group cheerily. 

“That we do Herald.” Replied Leliana from her position at the table. Aquila couldn’t help but to admire her. From a bard that was a companion to the Hero of Ferelden to Spymaster was a growth that she didn’t expect at first when she played the games, but came to accept eventually. Even if she still terrified her at times. 

“Yes! Let us begin now.” Agreed Kaaras. So for the next 10 minutes they discussed about the events that had transpired while Kaaras and his companions where in the Hinterlands. Meeting Mother Giselle, reports on the Mage-Templar war, closing a rift here and there, getting the towers set up for Master Dennet. They mostly didn’t pay attention to Aquila who stood silently by the door. This made her nervous, for she wasn’t too sure what the others would say about her or too her. 

_Please don’t jail me. Please don't think I'm crazy. Please don’t jail me and think I’m crazy._

“Aquila. Hey, you alright over there?” 

“Huh, what?” Aquila didn’t realize how deep in thought she was nor did she notice that now all of them; Cassandra, Leliana, Cullen, Josephine, and Kaaras were watching her. Some more intently then the others. 

Kaaras chuckled, “I asked if you were alright. You seemed to have spaced out. I called you a few times.” He motioned his head to come closer. “Come I want to properly introduce you.” Aquila blushed slightly and nodded, slowly walking and stood next to Kaaras. She kept her head slightly down, mostly because she was feeling really shy, especially since Commander Cullen was standing right across from her. 

_Hot damn it’s the lion. Crap, he looks so much better in real life than in the game. Oh Lort._

She hoped that no one noticed how warm her cheeks were feeling and she felt much better that she had her hood up. 

“Everyone, I want you to meet Aquila. I’m pretty sure you are all aware of how we stumbled upon her.” 

Josephine was the first to speak up. “A pleasure to meet you, Aquila. Cassandra had sent us a raven a few days prior to you coming here. The story she told us about you is… quite interesting.” 

“Oh?” She looked up towards the Seeker, who had her arms crossed on her chest staring at her quietly as she nodded her head in acknowledgment. 

“Yes. I thought it necessary for them to know ahead of time.” Explained Cassandra. Aquila nodded her head. “I understand Cassandra. I kinda figured you would. It’s not everyday people from other… places come here. Or drop out of rifts, well besides Kaaras here on the rift part that is.” Kaaras smirked at this stifling a small chuckle. 

“I will admit it is a bit hard to believe what you have told them so far Aquila.” Leliana commented, looking intently at Aquila. 

“Agreed. How do we know you’re not a demon in disguise who’s here to trick us?” The Commander asked in a cold harsh voice. This caught Aquila off guard, making her jolt slightly. 

_Aaaaaand he’s an ass. Well, alrighty then._

“I um, that is, uhhh…” she didn’t expect the Commander to be so… cold. It made her confidence go down, causing her to stutter out an answer. 

Kaaras then chimed in. “Well if she was a demon, Commander I’m pretty sure she would have attacked us by now. Plus we found her heavily wounded, so it’s not like she would have done much anyways. Also, she showed us the stuff from her “world” and I have to say it’s highly fascinating.” Aquila looked at Kaaras, thankful that at least she had the Herald to back up her claims. 

“Can you show us some of these items Aquila?” asked Leliana. 

“Ah, sure. Okay.” She replied quietly. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, feeling Beowulf at her feet nuzzling her calf to help soothe her. 

“Well, for one my clothing is obviously different from the styles ya’ll have here.” She started. Leliana and Josephine nodded in agreement, with Cullen only giving Aquila a hard glare. “Then,” Aquila used both hands to bring down her hood, letting the council see her hair, “there is my hair color. It’s actually quite common to dye hair various colors. Some people hate it, some like it. I’m partial to purple so that’s why my hair is like this.” 

“I’ve never seen hair such a color before.” Exclaimed Josephine as she stared in curiosity and awe at Aquila’s hair. 

“Indeed so.” Commented Leliana, agreeing with Josephine as she took in the color of her hair. 

“Ah, I’m sorry if it looks so terrible though. There’s still some blood in my hair I haven’t been able to wash out yet.” 

“Don’t worry Aquila, you’ll be able to bathe after this is done.” Kaaras reassured Aquila, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. She smiled at the Herald glad that she had a friend in him at least. "I would show you guys my phone, but it died before we got here and I haven't had a chance to recharge it yet. I'll explain what that means though perhaps later?" 

Cullen didn’t seem to buy it. “Clothing and hair aside and whatever a 'phone' is,” he argued with that same harsh voice, “How can we be sure that you won’t bring the Inquisition danger? That you won’t go back to where ever you came from and sabotage the work we have done so far?” 

Aquila normally kept her cool in situations where she was constantly questioned for no good reason, but this time she got a little snappy. Or more like her sarcasm came out. 

“Well for one, genius, I’m not even sure how I got here in the first place besides falling out of a rift. And two, I had even told Cassandra and Kaaras that I would have preferred to talk to you guys because I feel like I could explain some things. Like info I have and whatnot.” 

Cullen didn’t seem to be a fan of Aquila quipping at him, his jaw clenching tightly. “Information like what exactly?” He stared at her hard, waiting to see whatever she would say. 

“Information about stuff pertaining to the Inquisition. Well,” she rubbed her head trying to figure a way to tell the group that she pretty much knew how this would all play out. “It’s more that I know things. Things like where you could or have to go. Possible outcomes for the choices you’ll make, places…” she glanced towards Cullen, his glare never wavering “people. I know things that could be very helpful for you guys.” She looked down towards the huge map on the table. They had the Hinterlands map already set out, so she could guess where certain places where mentally. “For example, over here,” she pointed to the lower right of the map, “There are people here who want you to prove to them that you are the Herald of Andraste by closing a rift that’s somewhere in their camp.” She moved her hand again, pointing somewhere else. “Here on the East Road from the Crossroads are some bandits. I think they are trying to smuggle lyrium? Or red lyrium I think. I can’t remember honestly, but yeah you might want to get rid of them. You’ll be able to set up camp in the small canyon. Just, don’t go beyond that. Unless you’re prepared to take on a high dragon.” Aquila joked. “Oh! I should probably mark them on the map.” 

“Do you need a quill and inkpot?” Josephine asked. 

“Ah, no thank you Josephine it’s fine. I have a pen on me I think.” She tucked her hand into her pocket, trying to find the pen that she had placed inside it earlier. The motion seemed to of make Cullen react, grabbing onto the hilt of his sword tighter. Aquila noticed, but just rolled her eyes. 

She marked the places she told them on the map, continuing to do so as she threw a comment towards Cullen without looking up. “You know, you should probably chill out a bit. It’s not like I’m going to stab you with a pen, Commander. Unless you’re scared of tiny writing objects.” She didn’t see his reaction, but she heard Kaaras snort, trying not to laugh. 

_I too, can be a butthole._ She hummed, giggling internally. 

After a minute or so, Aquila was finished marking the map. “Now, I don’t remember much, but I marked some places of interest besides the ones I showed you. A bit of a tip the rift where the camp closest to Master Dennet’s place is a tough one, so if you want to you can avoid it until you get stronger or something.” 

Kaaras looked over the map, placing a hand under his chin as he studied it carefully. After a few more moments he looked over to Aquila, a smile growing on his face. “This is great! This could help us move things along quicker and easier. I’ll set out tomorrow in the morning.” 

Cullen was opposed to the idea. “You can’t be serious about this Herald? We have no way to verify this information, let alone if it won’t lead to any traps.” 

Kaaras looked towards Cullen, a slight look of a challenge gracing his face. “Cullen, as of this moment these are the only leads we have. As you all have said before, no one will take us seriously until we grow our forces and influence.” 

The two of them stared down at each other, which made Aquila feel awkward. She wasn’t really paying attention, which caused her to not notice Beowulf moving around the table, his quiet paws pit-pattering on the floor. Cullen was about to say something but got cut off by a sound of water leaking. He glanced down then closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm him down. He then opened his eyes and shot Aquila a deathly glare. 

Aquila’s eyes grew wide, one arm resting on her chest as it held up the other arm as it covered her mouth. She didn’t know whether to laugh or to be mortified. Kaaras did the same thing too, trying his best to stifle his laugh which was growing more. Cassandra just sighed, Leliana smirked and looked away, while Josephine just went, “Oh dear.” 

After a few more seconds, Beowulf was done relieving himself on Cullen’s boots and ran back to Aquila, sitting by her feet as he looked up with innocent eyes. _Beowulf **why**_. She sighed as she picked up the pup, not bothering to put him inside her jacket. 

“You should teach your _pet_ that he shouldn’t pee on people.” Cullen said icily. Aquila didn’t reply back, knowing that it was best not to so that way she wouldn’t make the situation worse. Instead, she just petted Beowulf’s head, looking down towards the map, trying to think of other important places. 

“Anyways,” Kaaras broke in, “I think we’ve made some progress. We finally have a direction on where to go and what to do. Thanks to all of you.” He looked around the group even at Aquila who smiled shyly. “Cassandra, can you tell Solas and Varric about our plans for tomorrow?” 

Cassandra nodded, “It will be done, Herald.” 

Kaaras bowed his head in thanks. “So with that, I call this meeting done. You can all go now.” 

Cassandra was the first to leave, followed by Leliana who grinned at Aquila, probably amused from what had just happened. “I’ll send in a servant to clean up the mess Herald.” Josephine announced an amused smile on her face. “Thank you, Josephine. I appreciate it.” Josephine curtsied and left the room. Cullen then walked around the table, shooting Aquila an irritated glare before leaving the room, leaving only her and Kaaras behind. She sighed to herself, thinking that what Beowulf did was possibly the worst that could have been done in her first meeting of Cullen and the others. 

“Hey, don’t worry about it okay?” Kaaras placed a hand on Aquila’s shoulder, looking at her with a gentle smile. 

“Kaaras, Beo peed on the Commander. The **Commander**.” She felt flustered and slightly embarrassed. 

He just laughed in return, finding Aquila’s embarrassment to be adorable. “Oh, he’ll be fine. He’s a grown man.” He moved his hand to pet Beowulf, “And you’re just going to be a little troublemaker are you?” Beowulf barked at him once, licking his hand. 

“Well, let’s get a move on shall we? I know where you could stay for the time being.” Kaaras walked towards the door opening and holding it open for the both of them. Aquila smiled and nodded her head in affirmation. “Right on it.” He let her pass through first before closing the door. They walked down the main hall before coming to the Chantry doors. 

“Hey Kaaras?” 

“Yeah?” 

Aquila looked up at him showing a warm smile, “Thank you for defending me, or at least having my back.” It took Kaaras a few seconds to respond, trying his best to show that he didn’t blush at the girl’s enchanting smile. “Of course. Now, let’s head on out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's that! Things don't seem to go too well when Aquila meet's the Commander. Beowulf tried to help her, but probably just made things worse. I like to think that Beowulf was thinking, "Yeah! That'll show him!" lol
> 
> Majority of the story will focus on Aquila, so she'll be in Haven for sometime.
> 
> Anyways, I highly appreciate you guys reading this! Comments and kudos are highly appreciated! Till next time!


	8. The Beginning of a Slight Misunderstanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god guys, it's been a while since I had posted. @.@  
> I had hoped to put this up yesterday, but it's been finals week so I haven't had the time to work on this story.
> 
> But hey! It's gotten past 500 hits! That's super exciting for me, and gives me motivation to continue on.  
> Anyways, enjoy! Kudos, comments are always welcomed!

Aquila was used to getting the odd stare here and there back home because of her outward appearance. Colored hair, normally decked out with black clothes (though not as often anymore), geek gear, and hell even when she cosplayed with her friends the looks were more frequent. Even so, not that many people payed attention, because it was growing to be a common thing.

This though, was something different. As Kaaras and Aquila walked towards the lodging she’d be staying in, virtually every single person stopped what they were doing for a few seconds to watch the duo pass. She had to guess that it was most definitely because of her hair color that had people staring at them. How often do they come across someone with purple ombre hair? Probably never. Nonetheless, Aquila found it to be quite amusing despite not liking attention. She couldn’t help, but to giggle causing Kaaras to glance at her with a quirked eyebrow. 

“Find something amusing?” he asked. 

“Yes. I’m wondering as to who the people are staring more at. You, or me?” she looked around catching a few people watching them as they walked. Some of them quickly turned away, while others didn’t seem to care that they were caught. Kaaras seemed to have noticed as well, catching a few looks and smirking afterwards. 

“Well, it’s not like you often see the Herald of Andraste walking around with a girl with… specific attractions about her.” 

Aquila quirked an eyebrow at him. “Specific attractions? Like what? My hair? Yeah, probably. I think that’s pretty obvious though Kaaras.” She replied oblivious to the compliment Kaaras had given her. Which he was pretty thankful for as he didn’t realize what he said at the moment and blushed slightly, coughing into his hand as he turned his head. 

“S-sure your hair. Yeah.” Kaaras stammered. “Anyways, here’s where you’ll be staying.” he announced as he opened the door to the cabin. Kaaras stepped inside first, followed by Aquila. The cabin itself was one room. It consisted of a queen sized bed on the opposite wall in the corner, with a smaller twin one next to it. There was also a small desk with a large chair in front of it with a cabinet a few feet away along the right wall. Next to the door was a bookshelf with a few books here and there, and off to the side was a fire pit that has been already lit, giving the room a serene warmth from the cold outside. Aquila walked towards the desk, taking off her backpack and placing it on top. She then placed Beowulf down onto the floor to which he started to explore the place. 

“I, I know it’s not much, but-” 

“It’s perfect.” Aquila stated before Kaaras could finish his sentence. She turned around, a warm smile spreading across her face. This stopped Kaaras midsentence, as he just looked at Aquila, the flame’s light playing across her hair and face, highlighting the light olive tone her skin had. Kaaras could only stare in awe, his previous blush coming back fiercer. He knew he had to go before she noticed and said something, so he stayed by the door placing one foot behind him. 

“I’m,” he coughed softly into his fist, “I’m in the cabin right next to yours, so if you ever need anything I’ll be close by. I’ll send for a servant or two to help bring in a tub for you to use.” 

“Oh? Thank you!” she exclaimed. She’s been waiting to take a bath for a while now, but she wasn’t sure on who she should ask. The fact that Kaaras was doing this for her made her pretty happy. 

Kaaras smiled and nodded back, “Make yourself comfortable now. I’ll see you later.” He closed the door with a firm thud, leaving Aquila and Beowulf in the small cabin. She then proceeded to taking off her jacket, folding it up nicely and placing it next to her backpack. The room was already warm, making the cold more tolerable. She always preferred winter anyways, so she wasn’t completely freezing. She then walked towards the bed, gently sitting down as she waited for her bath to come in. 

_“What’s this?”_ a small voice asked from her right? 

Aquila looked towards Beowulf who was sniffing the fire pit. “That’s a fire pit Beo and you should be careful around it. You’ll burn yourself if you get any closer.” 

“Oh, okay.” He then trotted off to another area of the room, taking in all the scents and smells their current dwelling had. Aquila was aware that Kaaras had given her strange looks every time Beo and she “talked”, but the truth was that they were having a conversation even if nobody would understand. It was part of the gift Lupa had given her as a way to help protect her son. She smiled as she watched the curious pup, he reminded her of her family’s pet back home. 

_I wonder how she’s doing right now. It’s been at least two years since I’ve visited them._ Aquila was brought back out of thoughts by a knock on the door, which made Beowulf perk up his ears and bark towards the noise. 

“Ah, who is it?” Aquila asked. 

“Your bath mam.” Replied a meek voice 

“Oh! Ah, yes! One moment please.” Aquila walked towards the door to open it, revealing a petite elven woman carrying a large wooden tub. 

“Where would you like me to place it?” 

“Right there is fine.” Aquila pointed to the open area a foot away from the fire pit as she stepped away from the open door. The elven woman nodded and placed the tub where Aquila pointed too. Not long after that two more women came in with large buckets full of hot water, pouring it into the tub. Aquila watched the steam rise from the water, anticipating the hot bath she’s wanted for a while. When the two women were done pouring the water they left, leaving the other one behind. The elven woman stepped outside for a moment, bending down and picking up a small basket and came back in. 

“Would that be all you need miss?” 

“Yes, that’s fine. Thank you so much.” Aquila responded back. The servant bowed, then placed the basket next to the tub. “In here is some towels and soap to wash yourself. I’ll leave you be now.” She curtsied again and walked out of the cabin, closing the door behind her. Beowulf went up to the basket and started to sniff at it, his animal instincts making him curious about the new items. 

“What’s this?” Beowulf asked as he stuck his snout into the towels. 

Aquila laughed, “Those are for me to use when I bathe and afterwards.” 

“Oh? Why?” 

“Because I smell terrible and I’m filthy Beo.” Aquila walked towards the window and closed it. _Not today perverts._ She then walked back to the steaming tub and began to take of her clothes. It was a bit trickier since there was blood peeling off in flecks from her shirt and skin. Beowulf then lost interest in the basket, trotting over to fire pit and laying down a foot away, basking in the fire’s warmth. 

_Eck. I must have lost more blood than I originally thought._ She peeled off her jeans and folded them, placing it on top of her shirt that she already took off that was on the floor. Even in the flame’s light she could see bruises that decorated her skin. The biggest ones where on her thighs and stomach, which she assumed where the heavier cuts that had bled out. 

_I can already tell that I’m going to be sore for a while._ She mused. After taking off her under clothes and placing them on top of the jeans, she gingerly stepped into the hot water taking her time as she slowly sat down to make herself comfortable. She sighed in contentment, the hot water soothing on her skin causing her to relax. After a few minutes of soaking she then preceded to washing herself starting with her body. She reached for a soap that was in the basket. It was the size of her palm, a rough oval in shape. She took a quick sniff of the soap and smelled some flowery scents. It wasn’t too overpowering, and the delicate earthy tones it had were pleasing. A few seconds of wetting the soap and rubbing it on her arms produced a decent amount of lather. Aquila made sure to be careful on her bruises, some being more sensitive than others. After she finished her body she started to work on her hair, dunking down to soak it. Afterwards she began to use the soap in her hair, making a thick lather to clean out the dried blood, dirt and oils that collected. She brought her hands down in front of her, noticing the slight pink tinge the bubbles had. _I might have to wash my hair twice then._ She repeated the process again, satisfied when there were no more pink bubbles on her hands. She was done after 15 minutes, and decided to just sit back and relax, the water still hot on her skin. Her eyes closed as she leaned her head back, resting her arms on the sides of the wooden tub. She probably would have been like that longer, until she heard a knock at the door. 

“Who is it?” she asked turning her head to the left. 

“It’s me Miss. I have some extra clothes for you to wear.” 

“Oh? Ah, sure. You can come in.” 

The elven woman from before stepped inside, carrying a bundle of clothes in her arms. “Where would you like me to put this miss?” she asked as she closed the door. 

“Uh, you can place them on the bed since it is closer.” Aquila responded back. Normally, the idea of someone walking in while she was naked made her feel self-conscious, and was something she wanted to avoid entirely. But, she was sitting down and her hair was to her mid back, so it was long enough to cover her chest. The woman nodded and walked towards the bed, placing them down gently. She noticed the dirty clothes next to the tub and walked over to Aquila. 

“Would you like me to wash them?” she asked meekly. 

“Yes please! If it’s not too much to ask. Oh and my jacket too. It’s on the desk next to my backpack.” 

“Of course.” She nodded as she bent down to pick up Aquila’s dirty clothing. Doing so she noticed Aquila’s tattoo that was on her right arm and stopped to stare for a moment. Aquila was looking at Beowulf at the time to see if he was still asleep, she turned her head and noticed the young woman staring at her Triforce tattoo. She smiled to herself, _of course that would be the first thing she notices. I’m surprised she didn’t say anything about my hair honestly._

“It’s pretty isn’t it?” Aquila piped up at the woman. 

“Huh? Oh. Um, yes. Yes it is.” She stammered, obviously embarrassed from staring at it. 

Aquila laughed, “No need to get flustered. It’s not the first time people have looked at it. It’s fine.” She smiled at the elven woman, hoping that she would understand Aquila wouldn’t get furious with her. She continued, “I can tell you’re curious about it though, no?” 

The woman nodded her head. “I wanted to ask where it came from, but… I felt it too rude to ask.” She quietly said. 

Aquila waved her hand, “Nonsense, it is okay to ask questions. I don’t mind.” 

She nodded her head again, looking back at the tattoo again. “I’ve never seen anything like it? What does it mean?” 

Aquila pondered on how best to explain it. _I don’t think it’s a good idea to just flat out say, “Oh it’s just from a video game.” That would be super confusing, considering they haven’t mastered electricity yet. I guess I could just explain what the symbol means. That shouldn’t be too confusing… I think._

She inhaled a deep breath, collecting her thoughts before starting. “This,” she pointed to the center of the tattoo, “is called the Wingcrest. It also serves as the official crest of the Royal Family of Hyrule.” Aquila didn’t catch the widening eyes of the elven woman next to her, so she continued. “The Wingcrest is also known as the royal crest and it depicts the Triforce, which is the big triangle made up of the smaller ones, above the bird like design. It can also be found throughout the kingdom in various places, and can be found on banners, walls, and hell even the guard uniforms.” 

“Is it common to have the markings pertaining to the… royal family?” she asked quietly. 

“I don’t think so. Not a lot of people have the royal crest on them. The tattoos that they have also come in different styles, from being simple to more intricate like mine. The simple ones are more common. Those who have them are recognized by others. Mine’s more intricate for reasons.” 

“Ah, I see.” She lowered her head as if to think. 

“It’s not the only one I have though.” Aquila lifted her left arm and turned it to the right, showing the woman her other tattoo. Her already wide eyes seemed to have gotten bigger as she could only stare. 

“These represent two noble houses. The wolf for loyalty, and the three-head dragon for ferocity more or less. I’m sure they mean something different here, but that’s how it is back home.” 

“Yes, I see.” The elven woman nodded her head. Then as if she had remembered her task, she got up quickly, picking up Aquila’s clothes as well. “I’m sorry for bothering you my lady.” She fretted as she gave Aquila a slight bow. 

“Ah, it’s no bother to me really. I don’t mind.” Aquila responded, slightly confused at the sudden change. 

“Of course. I’ll wash your clothes right away.” The elf curtsied again and headed towards the door, picking up Aquila’s jacket from the desk. She then left the cabin, closing the door behind her. Aquila stayed in the water since she wanted to enjoy the bath she’s been waiting for. 

_I think that went well? The sudden change caught me off guard, but oh well. At least she brought me some extra clothes to wear in the meantime._ Aquila then closed her eyes, relaxing in the warmth and quietness of the cabin. 

_Well, what’s the worst that can happen._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Aquila eventually explains what her tattoos are to a servant. No harm in that right?  
> Right?  
> Will it come and make things more interesting? Complicated? Probably.  
> Anyways, I know that much doesn't happen here, but don't worry! Next chapter(s)? should have a few fun moments. :)


	9. Oh Dear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a short chapter, but have another one coming up real soon! Sorry I've been so afk lately. Life has a way of... being life aha. Also I ran into a bit of a wall, mostly because I was changing and rewriting things. I'm terribly sorry though! I hope to go back to at least weekly updates or every other week.

It was a chilly afternoon outside of the cabin Aquila was in. She was lying down on her bed, left arm splayed across her face contemplating the events that had happened since the Herald and his companions left about two weeks ago. They should return any day now since they would be coming back with the horses that Master Dennet gave them. Still, she hoped that it would be sooner than later because maybe then Kaaras could help sort out this mess. A mess that she more or less got herself into. 

She huffed at the thought and abruptly sat up. Her cabin had gotten a sort of “upgrade” over the past few days and honestly, she didn’t know what to make of it. If anything it had made her just a tad bit uncomfortable. The sheets and blankets had been changed out. They were made of a softer, cleaner material, sort of like fleece or high quality cotton. Someone must have figured out that purple was her favorite color since that is what the color they were. She looked over to where Beowulf lay, sleeping peacefully in the small fluffy bed that they had brought in for him. Around the cabin were other things too; a dark plush carpet that was placed in the middle of the room, a studier chair that had the color of a dark mahogany wood was placed by the new desk they had brought in. The desk was of the same color and had engraved details along the edges. Even the windows had some small curtains, laced with a beautiful swirl design that was white against the dark grey fabric. 

She didn’t need to ask for a bath since the servants have been doing that for her daily the past few days. Instead of a basic set of soaps and towels she was given two sometimes three baskets full of soaps, oils, towels, and what looked to be lotions for her to use. She fought her hardest to not have the servants bathe her, telling them that she was fine on her own, but the oldest one wouldn’t hear it. In the end she compromised saying that she would accept the help, but only for her hair. They agreed and she felt terrible about it. She might have not won that battle, but at least she didn’t have to wear the damn dresses they kept insisting she wore. After pestering Josephine for a while, she eventually relented and gave Aquila the tunics and breeches she preferred. Sure even those were made of a higher quality, but at least it made Aquila feel more normal. 

She really wish she had just kept her mouth shut, or at least made up some kind of crap which could of prevented from being treated differently now. Thinking about it started to make her agitated, so she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. After a quick stretch she began to pace the room, crossing her arms over her chest as she tried her best to collect her thoughts. Beowulf opened an eye to see her walking back and forth across the room, but then closed it and went back to sleep. She eventually stopped pacing in the middle of the room and closed her eyes. One thought, only one thought came to mind which summarized pretty much everything she was thinking. She tilted her head up towards the ceiling, slowly opening her eyes. 

“I’ve made a terrible mistake.”


	10. Almost a Slip Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in a day what!  
> I hope you all enjoy! Kudos and comments are always welcomed!

#### ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Two weeks ago~~~~~~~~~~

Aquila had finished bathing, using the towels she hastily dried herself. Even in the cabin, she could feel the chill of Haven seep in, so she tried her best to dry quickly. Wrapping the towel around her she took a few steps towards the bed, reaching for the clothes that the elven servant had brought in. Aquila frowned slightly, noticing that the tunic and breeches might not fit because of her more full size. There was also a white cotton shirt that had long sleeves so she wouldn't completely freeze. Thankfully that one looked to be looser than the tunic so it definitely would fit her. Her hips and chest were going to be a problem that she could already tell. She was thankful that the smalls the servant brought fit her. The breast band was something she had no idea how to wear, so she tried her best. Luckily, it was a large strip of a cotton fabric, so she tried her best to wrap it around her and crisscrossed it on the front of her chest. She was more than likely going to need to ask for help and she hoped that the same servant would come by with her own clothes soon. The boots they gave her had long, wool socks stuffed inside of them. Aquila happily put them on, wiggling her toes and taking comfort in the warmth they had. 

Thankfully, the tunic was bigger than what she had originally thought, though the chest area fit her quite snugly. It looked to be a cream color, but in the firelight it was hard to tell. To her it was the same as wearing a tight fitting t-shirt back home. She didn’t have her jacket to wear, but at least she was dressed pretty modestly. 

_'Might as well suck it up for now.'_ Aquila thought with a frown. 

She put on the breeches, and after a few moments of wiggling, got it to fit. After doing a few leg moves and a squat to make sure it wouldn’t rip, she sat down on the bed to put on the boots. They were a dark brown, matching nicely against the breeches that were of a similar color. 

She sat there for a while, mindlessly tapping her right foot against the bedframe. “It feels more official being here now.” she said outloud to herself. She glanced towards her bag and remembered the promise she had made to Solas about her astronomy book. As she stood up and walked towards the desk Beowulf lifted his head from his paws, watching Aquila as she started to put on her backpack. 

“Where are you going?” he asked sleepily. 

“I’ll be back soon little pup. I remembered a small promise I made.” Aquila walked over to where Beowulf was and knelt to stroke his head a few times. “Stay here and rest okay?” 

Beo yawned as he placed his head down onto his paws. “Okay. I’ll go back to sleep.” 

Aquila smiled softly as she watched his eyes closed, then she got up and walked towards the door adjusting her bag before heading out to where Solas was. Her hair was only slightly damp and she didn’t have a brush with her to take out most of the tangles, but since her hair was naturally straight it wasn’t that noticeable. Even so, she used her fingers to comb out some of them and then parting her hair on the right as it was her usual style. With everything set and done she opened the door and stepped outside, closing the door behind her. 

As she walked she came to a quick realization. Haven here was much, much bigger. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Games normally down scaled a lot of things when based on actual places, so of course Haven wouldn’t be so small. Even so the paths were still the same, just longer with a few branching out here and there. Instead of walking by the small camp where Varric might be, she decided to go around and use the path that was closer to the chantry. It would give her an opportunity to see more of Haven along the way, instead of just going in a circle. 

She walked by the cabins, making note of where Adan’s cabin was (she could hear the old man yelling at whatever poor soul was in there), the tavern which was bustling with activity, and of course the other cabins that were along the path. If she assumed correctly, Solas’s cabin was the one on the end closest to the stairs since that’s where he was in game. She wanted to make sure, so she asked a nearby servant for directions. The fact that the servant was so nervous wasn’t what made her confused, it was the fact that she bowed her head slightly and wouldn’t look at Aquila. This made her quirk her left eyebrow, but she thanked her nonetheless and went on her way. 

Aquila reached the cabin and stood in front of the door. Taking a few deep breaths to keep her calm, she proceeded to knock on the door and waited for a response. Knowing Solas he was probably reading or walking the Fade, which made her hope she didn’t disturb him. After a few more seconds the door opened, revealing a surprised Solas. 

“Ah, Aquila. I’m surprised to see you here.” 

“Oh, um well, I did make a promise before we got here no?” she stuttered, her cheeks turning to a slight pink tinge. She mentally told herself that it was from the cold, not from the man standing in front of her. Nope, definitely not. Denial was a great thing. 

Solas quirked his eyebrow at Aquila. “A promise?” 

“Y-Yeah!” She reached around her back and tapped her backpack. “My book remember?” She grinned cheerfully at Solas making him smirk slightly. 

“Oh, I wasn’t aware it was a promise.” He said with a smile as he stepped back, gesturing to Aquila to come in. 

Aquila gave a slight nod and walked past Solas, glancing around the cabin as she did. She wasn’t surprised at how clean and orderly it was. Everything had a place where it belonged. It made her smile and a soft giggle escaped her lips. 

“Something amusing?” she heard from behind her. Aquila turned around to look at Solas, who stood with his hands behind his back and an amused look on his face. 

“Perhaps more or less.” she replied, walking over towards the nearest desk and placing her backpack on it. “I’m just weird I guess, but how you have your cabin organized makes me smile. It’s very much like you.” Aquila was too busy opening her backpack to not see Solas watch her, his gaze curious as to what she meant by that. 

“Is that so?” he asked, “I wasn’t aware my cabin showed anything much of me.” 

Aquila brought out her book, giving it a quick glance over. There wasn’t much significant damage on it, just a few dents here and there on the cover. She opened it and quickly flipped through it, checking to see if anything else was amiss. Satisfied with the minimal damage she closed the book and turned around, surprised to see Solas smirking at her, a glint of amusement in his eyes. Aquila blushed at his smile, quickly losing her train of thought and then getting back on it just as quickly. 

“I-it might not be noticeable to others, but to me it is.” she stammered as she tried to explain herself. “What I mean is that it’s very meticulous in here, which is very like you.” 

Aquila approached Solas, holding out the book in front of her. “It’s a little dented on the cover, but besides that it should be in good condition to read.” She smiled cheerfully at Solas, making him chuckle at her enthusiasm. 

“I’ve never seen anyone quite as cheerful about lending a book as much as you.” he smiled as he moved his hands from behind his back to grab the book. 

The blush that was disappearing from Aquila’s face came back again, mostly from embarrassment. Solas took the book from her hands, he stared at the cover for a few seconds before grazing his hand over it. She watched his actions, unknowingly smiling to herself. 

_'Ugh, I feel like such a school girl. So stupid.'_ She had remembered what he had said a few seconds ago, and tried to get her jumbled thoughts in line. 

“I apologize for that. I’ve been told I can be… to enthusiastic at times. Especially when it comes to something I enjoy” Aquila brought her gaze downwards, fidgeting with her hands. 

“It’s nothing to apologize for Aquila. It’s not often I meet someone who has such a keen interest in learning.” 

Aquila looked up to see Solas smiling at her. She had somehow forgotten that Solas enjoyed meeting people who liked to ask questions and learn in general, so of course her embarrassment went away. She nodded with a smile and walked back to where her backpack was on the desk. “I’ve always been a bookworm since I was young,” Aquila was closing her backpack, then swung it over her right shoulder and maneuvered her left one into the other opening. “I used to be teased by it, but after a while I took it with pride. There’s nothing wrong with learning, which is why I’m also a curious person.” 

She turned around to look at him, a smile beaming on her face. “Well I leave you be now. I’m sure you can’t wait to read it.” 

Solas nodded once, “Thank you Aquila. I’m sure there’s much to learn from your book.” 

Aquila returned the gesture happily. “I see you later for now. I’m going to be exploring the rest of Haven for now. There’s much more for me to see here now. Bye Fen- **Solas**!” Realizing very quickly what she was about to say, Aquila recovered by correcting herself. She then did a small cough into her right hand that was a fist, hoping that Solas didn't catch what she was about to say. 

_**'Oh my God.'**_

She didn’t see the flicker of emotion that graced Solas’ eyes, since she quickly looked away and coughed into her hand. Embarrassed, she hastily walked towards the door opening it up to the chill wind outside. “Well enjoy the book. Bye!” giving an awkward laugh, she quickly closed the door. After it was shut she leaned against it and softly banged her head. 

_'I can’t believe I almost called him Fen’Harel, god fucking damnit!'_ Aquila wanted to kick herself for the slip up, but instead just took a few deep breaths, the crisp sharpness of the air filling her lungs. After a few more seconds she pushed herself off the door and walked down the steps, heading in the direction where Varric would be.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Even though Solas was too busy reading one of the paragraphs of the first chapter, he was able to catch Aquila having a slip up. He sworn she was about to call him something else, but she quickly recovered. A mixed look of curiosity and suspicion flickered in his eyes, but just like her he had quickly composed himself. She laughed nervously before she left, and he had the suspicion that she knew way more then she let on. Even so, the gleam and happiness that shone from her eyes when she lent him the book was a wonderful thing to see. Not too many shared his love for gaining knowledge, so this was something that he appreciated. 

He decided it would be best to keep an eye on her. He did not want his plans to go wrong again. He couldn’t afford to make another mistake. Not again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Aquila may or may of not been a Solasmancer when she played the game. Who doesn't like a heartbreak anyways. :'D


	11. Exploring Parts of Haven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Wow, I've been gone for quite a while. I didn't realize how long it's been. ;-;
> 
> Not going to lie, I took a bit of a hiatus for a few reasons. The main one being that well, life kinda bit me in the ass. It's been a bit of a struggle to pay bills and all, so a lot of my focus went into work. This caused me to lose some motivation to even continue on, because of all the stress I was going through. Motivation was also another reason because I started to feel that my story wasn't/isn't good enough compared to some of the other fantastic fanfics I've read on here. ;A; I sorta lost hope, but I decided to push myself forward to getting more of the story out. I had an outline written out, but my brother's pup decided it wasn't good enough and ate it instead aha. I probably should have done it in Word, but I like the feel of actually writing things out. 
> 
> But I still thank each of you guys for reading this dumb fanfic. Hell, I'm even surprised it got past to 900! It may not seem like a big number, but to me it is and it shows that at least some people are reading it. ^^' 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Nothing much goes on really, it's just Aquila walking around parts of the outskirts of Haven.

Aquila followed the trail that led down from the stairs next to Solas’ cabin. She had debated to go to the tavern first, but decided against it and would visit it at a later time. As she walked towards the middle of Haven, she took in the scenery around her. It seemed to be busier unlike in-game. People walking around instead of just being in idle groups of two or more, the chattering like a constant hum that shows that there is life here. It made Aquila smile to herself as she walked, the wind and her movements making her hair sway softly. 

As she approached the campfire Aquila saw Varric sitting down on a log, cleaning or maybe polishing his crossbow. This wasn’t too surprising to her since she knew the back story of Bianca. The bow, not the person, though nobody else knew about them, so until then she wouldn’t or won’t say anything. 

“Hello Varric!” Aquila exclaimed happily. 

Varric looked up at the approaching voice, “Well, hello there Cat. Almost didn’t recognize ya. Been wondering where you were.” 

Aquila giggled. “Almost didn’t recognize me? What, did my hair give me away.” She sat down next to him, reaching out her hands to the fire to get the chill out of them. 

Varric chuckled, “That’s probably what it was. Though I’m surprised you came from the opposite direction that I saw you and Blushes coming from.” 

Aquila looked towards Varric, confused. “Blushes? Oh! Kaaras!” she giggled for a few seconds. “I forgot that’s his nickname. It’s quite funny if I’m being honest, but yeah I was just giving Solas the book I was going to lend him.” 

“Is that so?” Varric asked. “Well, Chuckles does like to read.” 

Aquila smiled and turned towards the fire, watching the wood crinkle and pop from the flames. “As do I. I’ve been called a bookworm since I was small. It bothered me at first, but then I pretty much said ‘fuck it’, and went along with it. I knew what I was,” she laughed softly, “and still am.” 

Varric laughed along with her as well. “Your way of talking never fails to entertain me Cat.” 

“Oh? I’ve been told that I have… a quirkiness in the way I talk.” Aquila shrugged her smile never faltering. “It’s better than not having a voice I suppose.” There was a quick flicker of an emotion that showed in her eyes, whether or not Varric noticed Aquila wasn’t completely aware. After a few more moments of staring into the fire, Aquila stood up, stretching her arms behind her. “I’ll see you later Varric. I’m off to explore the rest of this place.” She turned around to face him, a playful grin gracing her lips. 

Varric chuckled a bit, “Of course, Cat. You go on and do your thing. Before you go, Blushes and I are going to play some Wicked Grace later on. Did you want to join us? I’m trying to convince Seeker to join us as well, but you know how she is.” 

“Wicked Grace? Oh! That’s the card game that’s played here often yeah?” Aquila asked. 

“Haha, yeah, that’s the one.” Varric replied. 

“Mmm, sure yeah. I’d like to join. Though I’d rather just watch first if that’s okay? I kind of prefer to watch people play first so that way I can get an idea more or less.” 

“Hmm? Sure that’s fine.” Varric said assuredly towards Aquila. 

Aquila smiled and nodded her head. “Okay then. Bye!” She waved behind her as she took off towards the stairs that lead outside the walls. Instead of them being direct across from the campfire, they were a bit of a small distance away. Along the way she observed the area, taking more mental notes of the changes she saw here and there. After a few minutes, Aquila reached the stairs. Being careful not to slip on the icy steps, she slowly descended stopping halfway. The view in front of her was breathtaking. 

It was nothing compared to how it was in the game. In front of the gates a little off to the right were dozens and dozens of tents, which more or less were for the Inquisition’s growing army. She watched people and they moved to and fro, some were sparring, some cleaning their armor or weapons, and others seemed to be eating or chatting amongst themselves. She could see Cassandra sparring with the wooden dummies in front of her. Despite her brash nature, Aquila always admired Cassandra. She was a strong, determined woman who did things that were necessary and wasted no time. Sure, at the moment Cassandra doesn’t completely trust Aquila, but she understood why. 

After a few moments she spotted Cullen training the new recruits. She observed him as he yelled out commands, giving a few pointers and tips here and there. It was then that a scout approached him, carrying a clipboard sort of thing. She watched him as he read the missive when he decided to look up and spotted Aquila. Aquila noticed he looked a bit surprised, but that surprise quickly turned into a glare and as quickly as he saw her, he turned away talking to the scout next to him. This made Aquila frown slightly as she let out a soft sigh, her shoulders dropping as well. 

She really didn’t want Cullen to be so apprehensive towards her, and if she was being honest with herself, it made her sad and disappointed. Not towards Cullen himself, but more towards the current situation. If anything Aquila hoped with time that they would be able to become at least friends, or not being given the stink eye all the time. Still, she would not dwell on it at the moment and descended down the stairs. She started walking the short path in front of her, taking a left where it branched out leading to the wooded area. As Aquila walked she watched the recruits training. Some were obviously very new, barely learning the basics of combat. Others seemed to be a bit more seasoned, being more precise in their blocks and hits, helping out the newcomers. She watched them for a bit before entering the woods, taking a guess that the cabin that was beyond the wall in the game was probably here as well. 

The soft crunch of the snow and dirt beneath Aquila’s feet was joined in by the sounds of distant birds chirping and the fennecs running about. The farther she walks the less she could hear the shouts and noise of the soldiers training. The path in front of her started to curve around a corner, and she idly followed it. Low and behold the cabin was at the end of the path and from what she could see, it looked to be empty and abandoned. After a few minutes, she reached the cabin ending up in front of the door. Just to be on the cautious side she gently knocked, and after a few moments, she reached for the handle, pulling on it slowly. Aquila tilted her head, peeking into the room in front of her. She then fully opened the door and proceeded to walk in. The main room was vast, a few crates along the wall across from her and an empty shelf along the left wall. In the middle was a fire pit that looked like it hasn’t been used in quite a while. There was a ladder that led up to the attic looking area above her. She would climb it, but she was unsure of how long the ladder had been there and if it even was stable. 

Aquila walked to the right and into an open room that was only walled off on the ends. To her right closest to the door were two cots and across from them was a desk with stacks of papers strewn across it. She walked towards the desk reaching out for the nearest stack to glance at what was written on it. They looked to be a set of notes with writings on particular plants, various measurements, and some other uncompleted information. If Aquila’s memory served her right, these are probably the notes Adan had mentioned about whenever she had to introduce her character in the game. She took off her backpack and placed it on the desk and after gathering what she hoped to be the rest of the notes, putting them into her pack to give to Adan later. She had assumed that Kaaras had already done this, but since he was busy often he probably hasn’t had a chance to come by here. 

When that was done she closed up her backpack and put it back on, taking a quick glance around before heading out. Aquila walked out and closed the door, going around the cabin to continue exploring the area. She continued to walk along the path, passing through the giant wooden gate that was behind the cabin. Humming a random tune to herself she walked, glancing around until her eye caught the rift in the sky. She stopped in her tracks to look at it, watching the clouds circle around it like a whirlpool, the bright yellow-green of the Fade glowing from the center. The scenery in front of her was gorgeous and looked like something that she would see out of a photograph. The distant mountains bordered the area around Haven, the rocks and cliffs near her in a blanket of snow while the tree and grass swayed in the wind. While it was lovely, the rift in the sky was a reminder of what the Inquisition has to accomplish, and what is to come in the future. 

After a few more moments of watching the rift, Aquila continued to follow the path. She kept walking unit she reached a curve in the path. It ended up leading to a little dock on the frozen lake that seemed to be unused for a while. Instead of going towards it, she decided to climb the rocks in front of her, doing her best to not lose her grip and slip. Seconds later she reached the top, surprised that the top of the cliff was relatively flat. From where she was she got a good view of Haven, and man was it gorgeous. Aquila felt this would have been a perfect setting to take a picture of which made her reach towards one of the pockets of her breeches. At that moment she realized that her phone was in her backpack along with her charger. 

Aquila looked for a place to sit down, deciding to sit in a little dipped rock that was perfect for laying back on. Aquila took off her backpack and began rummaging through it, looking for her phone and charger. She brought them out and turned on her phone, waiting a few seconds to get to the home screen. She noticed that it was on 5%, which was gave her a good amount of time to plug in her solar powered charger. Looking through her phone, she went into one of her music apps. Obviously she couldn’t use Pandora or something similar because of the lack of internet here, but she always had a backup thanks to the expansive mirco SD cards she had on her. Aquila decided to leave it on the playlist she was listening to back at home, and gently set it down on the rock next to her with the charger propping it up to give it some more volume. 

Aquila then laid back, glancing up towards the sky, watching the snowflakes swaying in the wind as they made their way down. As Aquila relaxed she softly sang with the music, her mind wandering as she began to day dream. 

“Birds flying high, 

You know how I feel. 

Sun in the sky, 

You know how I feel. 

Reeds driftin' on by, 

You know how I feel. 

It's a new dawn. 

It's a new day. 

It's a new life. 

For me,” 

Aquila inhaled at the break, a subtle smile gracing her lips. 

“And I'm feeling good…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you don't know, the song at the end is called Feeling Good by Nina Simone. Michael Buble has also done a rendition of this song too, but I love them both. :)


	12. The Templar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back  
> Back again  
> The muse is back  
> Tell a friend
> 
> I missed you all so much! ;A;
> 
> I know it's been a super long time since I've updated, and I will not lie. I sort of gave up on this fic for a while. I had no idea where I wanted to go with it and I essentially was in an ugly writer's block. I aim to at LEAST update once a week and if I happen to get more chapters written out within the week, I'll probably post them as well.
> 
> I also apolgize for this short chapter, my inner muse didn't feel like getting much out lol.

Training recruits has always been a hard task. More of them had started to trickle in now that the Inquisition was officially declared. Of course, most of them had just been farm hands, the common man, or refugees, only ever picking up pitchforks and farm tools most of their life. Still, he has worked with less and his Templar training would certainly give him an advantage in making them soldiers. Not to mention that there were other Templars here with him, so that would help him to train the incoming recruits. 

“Remember to use your shield to block incoming attacks! You won’t be able to defend yourself if you can’t use it properly!” Cullen shouted at the recruits who were sparring. 

“Commander!” a voice called to him from behind. 

Cullen turned around as a scout came to him holding a missive. He nodded as he took it, reading through the details of incoming recruits and supplies that he had requested. He had looked up to give a quick thanks to the scout when he spotted Aquila. He was surprised to see her standing on the stairs watching him. As childish as it felt he glared and turned around, asking the scout to keep him up-to-date with the details before giving him a curt thank you. 

He knows he should not be acting like a child, but the events from earlier had highly annoyed and aggravated him and Aquila was the last person he wanted to see. He focused on the task in front of him, trying to ignore her. He gave out more commands to the trainees, showing them how to hold their weapons properly and how to use it. He sent some of them with more seasoned soldiers, hoping to get them used to the sparring so that way they could be prepared for whatever fight could come in the future. 

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her walking along the path and he turned his head slightly to watch her. She didn’t seem to notice him since she was occupied with observing the troops as they practiced. He couldn’t help but notice how… different she looked. Her odd colored hair contrasted against the cream colored tunic she wore. The light from the sun shined in her hair making it look liked it glowed almost and he couldn’t help but to stare at her. 

After a few moments he shook his head and turned his attention back to the task at hand. He would not be distracted by some bratty girl, especially one whose origins seemed so farfetched and suspicious. No, instead he would be aware of her and watch to see if she was a spy of sorts or not. Possibly even a demon since apparently, she had come out of a rift. He would _not _let one person compromise all they had done so far.__


	13. A small dilemma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry for the delay. Work has been super busy lately. Anyways I still want to thank ya'll for reading this shitty fic lol.  
> 100 kudos though! I can't honestly believe I've gotten that much. It's quite surprising lol.  
> Anyways, I might update this chapter sometime later. I couldn't find where to end it and I was having a major writer's block, so I wanted to post it before I give up again haha ^^'  
> Comments, kudos, and the likes are appreciated!

It was around dusk by the time Aquila walked back to her cabin. She glanced around the woods as she walked. The sun was setting behind the mountains, with the sun’s rays filtering through the trees making the environment around her feel serene. She had lost track of time when she was daydreaming and remembered that Varric had asked her to join the others to play Wicked Grace in the evening. She had always been curious at the game and wondered if it was similar to playing poker or 21. Both games she enjoyed playing with her friends whenever they would hang out together. 

Her friends. Aquila suddenly stopped in her tracks, her mind buzzing with thoughts back home. She crossed her arms as she mindlessly stared towards the ground. How long had she been here already? A week? Did time pass the same as it did home? Or was it pulling a Narnia and mere moments ticked by? Or was it the opposite? Did time go by faster now that she was here? She had been so occupied by her current situation and exploring the area that she had forgotten about them. 

And she felt a pang of guilt. 

It’s not like she had meant to and she certainly was not going to cry over it, but they were the only close friends she’s had. What made her feel even guiltier is that despite being sent to another realm or world, she actually really enjoyed her time here and not once thought about going home. She was so completely lost in thought that she didn’t hear the soft crunch of snow as someone walked towards her. 

“Aquila?” a voice asked as they approached her. 

“Hmm?” she looked up to see a concerned Kaaras approach her. “Oh! Kaaras, hello there. I didn’t see you approaching.” 

“Yeah, so I could tell. You okay there?” He asked Aquila as he stopped in front of her, his voice laced with concern. 

She did not want Kaaras to worry about her, so she simply nodded her head and smiled. “I’m pretty okay. Just thinking about some stuff. Really, it’s nothing to worry about.” It was at that moment a chilly breeze came by, making Aquila shiver. “Though, I am thinking that it’s getting pretty cold now. My only jacket is getting washed and I’m pretty sure a tunic won’t keep me warm.” She added as she moved her arms around to wrap around herself. 

Kaaras watched her for a few moments before taking off his leather jacket and held it out to Aquila. “Here, take mine.” Aquila looked at the jacket before looking at Kaaras, curious about his gesture. “Are sure about it?” she asked, her brow slightly furrowing. 

“Yeah! It’s no probably really. Besides, I’m normally warm most of the time.” He shrugged as he turned the jacket in his hand, placing it on Aquila’s shoulders. She nodded as she first took off her backpack so she could slide her arms into the leather sleeves. Her fingers gently grazed Kaaras fingers as she did so. He blushed slightly and nodded back hoping Aquila didn’t notice. Of course, she was too oblivious and didn’t pay attention as she was fixing the jacket. 

“Thank you! I really appreciate it.” She looked up and smiled at Kaaras. The pure sparkle of gratitude in her eyes from such a small thing made him smile back despite being flustered. 

“Of course. Anyways, I was heading to the tavern when Varric told me he had asked you about joining us for a game of Wicked Grace. Did you still want to join us? He said you’d never played before, but I could help teach you?” He asked her as he waited for Aquila to be done. 

“I’d really appreciate that, yeah. I wonder if it’s similar to poker.” She wondered, tapping her bottom lip gently with her finger. 

“Poker?” 

“Yeah! It’s a card game that’s used in gambling. Sorta similar to Wicked Grace I think. Anyways, we should probably head there before they think we’re missing.” 

Aquila started to walk on the path they were on, gesturing with her hand to Kaaras to follow. They chatted along the way, talking about various things, with Aquila mostly describing how poker worked, and how there were other cards games as well. They reached the clearing and continued on walking, going past the solider camps that were quieting down with some of them around various campfires, talking amongst themselves. 

After a few minutes they approached the tavern, the loud sounds coming through the open door and windows. “I guess everyone is in there huh?” Aquila asked, looking towards Kaaras as they reached the door. 

Kaaras shrugged. “Most of them yeah. Varric tried to get Solas and Leliana to join, but they both refused.” 

“Ah, I see. Makes sense I guess. Who else-” Aquila stopped mid-sentence when she saw a red and black mane along with who it belonged too. Of course Varric had invited him too, no surprise there, but she wondered if he was aware of the slight “situation” between them. They were all seated by the fireplace, Cassandra, Varric were on one side of the table facing towards the door where Aquila was while Cullen and Josie were on the opposite side. 

“Aquila?” she heard Kaaras call out to her quietly. His voice laced with a hint of concern. 

“I, ah remembered something I have to do.” She mumbled as she backed away from the door. She was aware of how Cullen felt towards her still, and she _did not_ want to push it. Kaaras watched her back away, confusion plastered on his face. “Where are you going?” he asked. 

Aquila quickly thought of an excuse that was half true before turning around and walking to her cabin. “I have to check on Beo to see if he’s okay. He’s probably wondering where I’m at and hungry too.” She spoke quickly, then paused for a second only to look back at Kaaras. “Can you do me a favor?” she asked. 

“Huh? Uh, yeah sure.” Kaaras was puzzled by the sudden question. 

“Can you get someone to bring me something to eat? I realized I haven’t eaten much today. Oh! And I would also like a small bowl of chopped meat and another bowl of water. Those are for Beowulf obviously.” She added, a small smirk on her face. 

“Sure, I can do that for you. You sure you don’t want to join?” He questioned as she started to take small steps backwards. 

“Yeah I’m fine. Have fun!” she waved once with her hand, turning around and walking off hastily. Kaaras watched her go, his eyes showing concern. He watched her for a bit, making sure to see if she would come back or not before stepping inside the tavern. He approached the table where the others were sitting, quickly changing his expression to that of a cheerful smile.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit is that a chapter! This fic isn't abandoned! Whaaaaat!?

The walk to the cabin was quiet, the only noise coming from the sound of snow crunching under her feet and the wind gently blowing. She had sped walked at first, but slowed down after getting far enough away from the tavern. 

Boy oh boy, did she feel like an idiot. She knew that she had made a childish decision by just taking off from where the others were, but she honestly had no idea how the situation might have gone had she been there. If anything she probably would have made it awkward with the amount of sass she would have given Cullen in front of the others. Which probably wouldn’t be a good idea if she kept on pushing it. Aquila realized it might end up getting her kicked out of Haven and then she would be in real deep shit. 

After a short while she came up to her cabin. She placed her hand on the door knob for a few seconds as she laid her forehead on the door. The cold wood calmed her down as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She needed to be more careful and aware of what she was doing. The information she has is vital, but it would mean nothing if she wasn’t there to help them. 

With that done, she opened the door, the soft crackles of the fire pit being the only sound inside the cabin with Beowulf sleeping beside it. Hearing the sound of the door open his ears twitched, opening his eyes to Aquila entering the cabin. 

“You’re back.” He said sleepily, as he got up and stretched, making a huge yawn in the process. 

“Sorry I’m back so late Beo. I lost track of time and made it back here as soon as I could.” Aquila went to the bed to sit down and stretched her arms above her head. A yawn escaped her lips as she brought her hands down, her mind wandering aimlessly. Beo propped himself up on his hind legs, resting his two front paws on Aquila’s leg to get her attention. 

“Hey.” 

“Hmm?” Aquila replied as she looked down at him. 

“I gotta go potty.” Beo replied sheepishly, “I’ve been waiting for you to come back because I can’t open the door.” 

“Oh shit. My bad! Let’s go outside. I think there’s a little area next to us for you to do your thing.” Beowulf barked as a reply, so Aquila got up and went to the door with Beo trailing behind her. As she opened the door, she felt a gust of cold wind go right through her. She shivered and tucked her hands into herself as she crossed her arms across her chest. “Alright let’s g-“, before she could finish her sentence Beowulf darted right pass her legs towards the side of the house. Aquila laughed as she followed him. Beowulf went to the side of the cabin where a tree was and began to sniff along the ground eventually going behind a tree. Aquila leaned on the wall as she waited for him, zoning out as Beo did his business. 

When Beo was done he trotted back to Aquila where she greeted him with a smile. “You all done buddy?” He barked back as a confirmation. “Well let’s head on back in then. I’m freezing and someone should be bringing us something to eat soon.” She pushed herself off of the wall, turning around the corner and taking the few steps to the door with Beowulf on her trail. The door was open so she waited for him to come in before shutting it. The small gust of wind made her shiver, but the warmness of the room made that last only a few moments. Aquila proceeded to take of her backpack and place it on her desk. 

_‘I need to do a full account of the crap I have in my bag.’_ Aquila realized she hadn’t fully checked her backpack since she was consistently on the move when she was with Kaaras and his companions. She contemplated opening it and doing it now, but the food she had asked for might be coming soon and she didn’t want to have such a big mess. Instead she went to go lie down on the bed horizontally so that way her boots were off to the side. 

She could hear Beowulf trying to climb on the bed so she sat up and grabbed him, placing him next to her. She went back to laying down with her left hand underneath her head as Beo sniffed the bed, eventually curling up next to her. After a few moments his nose twitched, and he turned his head to face Aquila’s chest sniffing the jacket she was wearing. Aquila noticed what he was doing and raised her eyebrow. “What’s up?” 

“It smells like him.” He replied back curiously, sniffing the jacket again. 

“Like him?” Aquila took the collar and sniffed it. Her sense of smell might not have been as good as Beo’s, but she understood what he meant. She could only smell the leather, but there was the subtle hint of earth and woods probably because that’s where they were for the past week. Especially since they slept on the ground. Besides that she couldn’t smell anything else different, but she knew that Kaaras scent might still linger on. 

“I don’t smell as good as you do, but yeah it’s Kaaras. He let me borrow it for the time being since I was freezing outside. Why? Does it smell bad?” she asked curiously. 

“Nope. I like the way he smells.” Beowulf then cuddled into Aquila’s side, making her chuckle and stroked his fur lazily. They stayed like that for a while, enjoying the silence besides the crackling of the fire pit. She contemplated just falling asleep, but she knew that someone _hopefully_ would come by with food. He stomach grumbled at the thought and she sighed. She would have rather go to the tavern and get it herself, but that would mean a possible run in with Cullen and she didn’t want to make things awkward. 

A few more moments passed when her stomach growled again. “Agh, fuck it! I’ll go get it myself.” She huffed as she sat up, being careful not disturbed a sleeping pup. His ears twitched as he opened one eye, watching Aquila as she sat up. Awkward or not she was hungry and no way in hell would she let anyone make her skip a meal. 

_‘My fatass is going to eat damn it!’_ Just as she was in the middle of her thought there was a knock on the door. Beowulf’s ears perked up as he lifted his head, watching the door keenly. “Did you hear that?” he asked. 

“Hmm?” Aquila looked at him as there was another knock on the door. She turned her attention to the noise as she stood up. “Oh, well. I guess I don’t have to make myself look like an ass then.” She giggled a bit as she walked to the door and opened it, surprised by who was standing in front of her. 

“Hey!” a cheery voice greeted her, “I’m sorry I took so long to come by. Was stuck in a round of Wicked Grace when your food was done, so I came by as quickly as possible.” Kaaras stood at the door with a tray of food for both her and Beowulf. There were three bowels on the tray with two obviously for Beo. 

“Oh, n-no that’s fine really. I just didn’t expect for you to come yourself. Come on right in. You can place it on the desk.” Aquila moved to the side to let Kaaras in watching him as he went to go place it on the desk and shut the door. Beowulf gave a quick bark as he stood up, cautiously jumping off the bed before bounding to Kaaras, tail wagging as he sat on his hind legs. 

“Hey buddy! How are you tonight?” Kaaras said as he bent down on one knee to pet Beowulf on the head. Beowulf barked once before licking Kaaras’ hand making him laugh at the sheer happiness of Beo seeing him. Aquila watched the interaction before her and smiled. She was glad that Beo adored Kaaras and the reverse, but of course who doesn’t love an adorable pup like him. She crossed her arms as she leaned against the door, watching them play around for a couple of minutes. 

“You didn’t have to come yourself you know. You could have sent someone from the tavern.” Aquila began as she walked towards them, “Besides weren’t you in the middle of a game?” Kaaras continued to play with Beowulf, rubbing his stomach as Beo tried to catch his hand, but instead only licked it. 

“True, but I wanted to see how you were doing.” Kaaras said as he stood up and turned towards Aquila. “You left so abruptly so I wanted to see if you were alright.” 

Aquila blinked a few times before giving a smirk. “Aw, you were worried for me? Aren’t you a sweetheart haha.” The comment caught Kaaras off guard and made him blush slightly. “No- yes, I just wanted to see yo- I mean I wanted to see if you were okay.” Kaaras stumbled over his words, only to make Aquila laugh. She waved her hand as she walked by him. “I know what you mean. I’m just messing with ya.” She came up to the desk and grabbed one bowl that was filled with water and another filled with chunks of raw meat. “Come here Beo.” She then placed the bowls on the ground next to her desk. Beowulf came to her and sniffed the bowl filled with meat before digging right in. Aquila smiled and gently patted his head before turning around to face Kaaras. 

“Are you sure it’s not because you were probably losing to Varric?” she teased with a mischievous grin. 

“What? No…” he sighed dejectedly, “Yes. And Josephine too. I didn’t realize how good she really was.” 

Aquila laughed loudly, “You should have known to not bet against an Antivan,” she continued to laugh as Kaaras pouted a bit. “Varric should have warned you about it at least.” 

“I think he didn’t on purpose. I could see it in his eyes!” Kaaras grumbled as he scratched the back of his neck. “Anyways will you be fine by yourself? I could stay for a bit to keep you company?” he asked, changing the subject to avoid any more embarrassment. 

“Nah, it’s alright. I was gonna eat and go to sleep since I almost passed out waiting.” She chuckled as she pulled out the chair. “Besides I don’t want you to be bored here. You could go back to the tavern and lose in style” she jested towards Kaaras the same sly grin from a few moments ago coming back. 

“You’re a cruel woman you know.” Kaaras retorted as he crossed his arms. 

“What? Me? Oh never.” The sarcasm from Aquila’s tone dripped heavily. She laughed again, placing her hand over her chest which prompted her to think of what she was wearing. “Oh, you can have this back.” She proceeded to take of the leather jacket and tossed it to Kaaras before sitting down. “I was going to give it back to you before I left, but I kind of forgot.”

Kaaras caught the jacket with one hand looking at it before putting it on. “You sure you don’t need it still? I can always ask for them to make me another one.” Aquila waved her hand at him again, taking the spoon that was next to the bowl and scooping out some the beef stew. 

“It’s fine.” She said before putting the spoon in her mouth. The hearty flavors of the soup made her smile with contentment as she could feel it go down her throat. “Besides I should be getting my jacket back hopefully. As long as it’s not too cold tomorrow I should be fine.” She took another scoop of the soup and hummed. _‘I don’t know if it’s because I’m really hungry, but damn this is good!’_

Kaaras watched her for a few moments before putting on the jacket, tugging on the bottom half to adjust it. “Well, if you say so then.” He turned around to face the door, “Looks like it’s time for me to lose more gold I guess.” Aquila laughed at his statement which made Kaaras turn around to face her. 

“Just be more careful with your gold okay?” she chimed in before he left. Kaaras smiled to her and nodded his head walking towards the door and opening it. “Kaaras?” he heard his name, causing him to look back to Aquila. “Thank you.” She smiled warmly towards him, making Kaaras blush though whether or not Aquila could see he was unsure. He hoped she couldn’t. 

“O-of course. You’re welcome! Goodnight Aquila. See you tomorrow.” With that he closed the door, leaning on it slightly to settle the slightly quickened heartbeat. He told himself it was just the cold making his face red, though he knew he was only lying to himself. He gently pushed himself off the door and walked down the path towards the tavern. Maker knows Varric would start talking about him again.


End file.
